Under The Iron Sea

Performer: Keane
Engineer: Andy Green
Producer: Andy Green
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Keane: Richard Hughes, Tom Chaplin, Tim Rice-Oxley. Personnel: Tom Chaplin (vocals); Andy Green (programming). Audio Mixer: Mark "Spike" Stent. Having won both critical and commercial acclaim for their debut album, HOPES AND FEARS, British band Keane pushes the hook-infested keyboard-rock on their sophomore effort in a darker, moodier direction. But UNDER THE IRON SEA features an intense, romantic brand of melancholy, with the trio of Tom Chaplin, Richard Hughes, and Tim Rice-Oxley vamping their way through vaulting rock melodies and power ballads, all without the aid of a single guitar. There are plenty of deliciously chewy guitar-like sounds, though, that Keane achieves by feeding electric pianos and synthesizers through various effects pedals and studio gear. The album begins with the gloomy pop gem "Atlantic," in which Chaplin broods over layers of swelling synths and insistent drum work before the song resolves into a clearing of pure melody. The song showcases Chaplin's soaring vocals, which are at points as tortured as Thom Yorke's and at others smoothly reminiscent of Freddie Mercury. On "Is It Any Wonder?" the verses strut along anxiously until a barely-in-control keyboard riff winds the song up into its gleeful chorus. Filled with moving, melodic rock, Keane's solid second effort points to further sonic expansions to come.

Rolling Stone (p.70) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] bigger doses of atmospheric keyboard...it offers some of the same tuneful pleasures of the debut, with big-voiced Tom Chaplin digging into his big bag of swooping choruses." Spin (p.90) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] lovely, piano-driven sounds....UNDER THE IRON SEA boasts an embarrassment of melodic riches..." Entertainment Weekly (p.69) - "UNDER THE IRON SEA coats the group's typically hand-wringing lyrics with layers of symphonic embellishment." -- Grade: A- Q (p.108) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "The lyrics may be downbeat, but musically there's all sorts of festival-friendly, stomach-clenching brightness..." Q (p.126) - Ranked #6 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006." Mojo (Publisher) (p.100) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Opening track 'Atlantic' has dark, dreamy quality they haven't displayed hitherto, 'Broken Toy' is jazzy and swoonsome...[and] 'Hamburg Song' is a gorgeously wistful ballad..."

British trio Keane, who trade in the sort of grandiose, melancholy Britpop that was the chief domain of Coldplay for much of the early 2000s, broke big with their 2004 debut album, HOPES AND FEARS. While many hear the band's sound as yet another watered-down version of Radiohead, the guitar-less ensemble's anthems of heartache and self-doubt ring with a buoyancy that calls to mind pop songwriters like Billy Joel and Elton John, thanks in part to the band's infectious piano-based melodies.

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