Keane
"Oh simple thing, where have you gone? I'm getting old and I need something to rely on."—Somewhere Only We Know
Keane are an alternative rock band from East Sussex, England. The band consists of Tim Rice-Oxley (piano and backing vocals), Tom Chaplin (lead vocals and guitar),Richard Hughes (drums and percussion), and Jesse Quin (bass guitar and percussion).
Keane's origins date back to 1993, when Rice-Oxley and his friend Dominic Scott got together with Hughes to form a rock band known as Lotus Eaters while studying at the University College, London. The group played covers of songs from their favorite musicians, such as U2 and the Beatles. In 1997, Chaplin joined the band as the lead vocalist, while Rice-Oxley moved to piano. The title of the band changed to Cherry Keane, named after a friend of Chaplin's mother. Shortly after she died of cancer, the name was shortened to Keane. They made their debut live appearance in 1998.
Scott left the band in 2001 to continue his education after Keane's self-produced promotional singles had limited success. The band was discovered in 2002 by Simon Williams, who had been responsible for discovering Coldplay. They released their first commercial single, Everybody's Changing, in 2003. The attention they recieved from this track allowed them to sign with Island Records. Their debut album, Hopes and Fears, was released in 2004. It achieved great commercial success and won them the 2005 BRIT awards for Best British Album and British Breakthrough Act.
Keane's second album, Under the Iron Sea was released in 2006 and reached #1 on the UK album chart. The album built on the piano-driven melodies of Hopes and Fears by using distortion pedals on the piano to mimic the sound of electric guitars. Jesse Quin joined the band in 2008 to help record Keane's third album, Perfect Symmetry. The album was influenced by 1980's synth pop and employed a guitar for the first time.
As of 2011, Keane is currently working on their fourth studio album.
- Hopes and Fears (2004)
- Live Recordings 2004 (2005): A live album EP with six tracks.
- Under the Iron Sea (2006)
- Keane Live 06 (2006): Limited release of performances during the Under the Iron Sea Tour.
- Perfect Symmetry (2008)
- Retrospective EP 1: Everybody's Changing (2008): A seven track EP.
- Keane Live Recordings: European Tour 2008 (2008)
- The Cherrytree Sessions (2009): Acoustic rearrangements of Somewhere Only We Know, Perfect Symmetry, and The Lovers are Losing.
- Night Train (2010): An eight track EP.
- Retrospective EP 2: Sunshine (2010): A seven track EP.
- iTunes Festival 2010 (2010)
- Album Title Drop: Subverted in that the song "Under the Iron Sea" is instrumental. Instead, the lyrics in "Crystal Ball" provide the name drop.
- Anti-Love Song: "Is It Any Wonder?", a tirade directed at the girl who broke the protagonist's heart. Even includes the lyric "love is just a lyric in a children's rhyme".
- Darker and Edgier: The whole Under the Iron Sea album. It was written during a time where the band members were fighting amongst each other and Chaplin was struggling with drinking and drug problems.
- Gratuitous French: "Black Burning Heart"
- Lonely Piano Piece: "Atlantic"
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Spiralling" has an upbeat tempo, dance/funk feel, and energetic shouts of "ooh!". Its a song about the futility of human endeavor.
- New Sound Album: Perfect Symmetry departed from the band's typical piano pop sound by using guitars and synthesizers influenced by 80s music, leading to They Changed It, Now It Sucks for some fans.
- War Is Hell: The song "A Bad Dream" is about a fighter pilot in WWII, based off of a W. B. Yeats poem called "An Irishman Forsees His Death".