CD Reviews of...
Keane
Hopes and Fears
By: Kiki Alexander
Originally called “The Lotus Eaters,” the British alternative pop-rock trio Keane have somehow found a way to embody the very meaning of “Simple and Elegant” in a way very few of today’s bands have been able to accomplish.
It’s hard to imagine that this has been a success in the making for the past seven years. When first formed Keane consisted of Tom Chaplin, Tim Rice-Oxley, Richard Hughes, and guitarist Dominic Scott. In 2001 Scott left the band, perhaps, for the better. You see, what sets Keane so far and wide apart from the easily suffocating norm of today’s mainstream is the fact that their music puts Rice-Oxley and his incredible talent for the piano front and center allowing for Chaplin’s sweet vocals to take the credit they so deserve. That’s not at all to forget drummer Hughes who manages, and does a sweet job I might add, of keeping a certain balance necessary to Keane's rather unique sound. Don't let the fact that they have about everything except a guitarist scare you either. They actually manage to pull off the soft dreaminess without abandoning rock altogether.
The first single, “Everybody’s Changing” a smart, thoughtful track, brought them out of the shadows but it was the moving and almost sad “Somewhere Only We Know” that pushed them into the light with it’s nostalgic feel. What might be so refreshing about the bands album Hopes and Fears though, is the simplicity that carries through it, or even that it comes across as understated at times while still laced with it’s cryptic lyrics and striking moodiness.
While it is a beautiful and completely different album, the eleven tracks almost seem to bleed together in places. Not enough though to break it or the fact that Hopes and Fears, and the band who created it, are absolutely splendid and definitely on their way to somewhere good, to say the least.