Keane - 'Lovers Are Losing'
Shamefully, we're going to need to play catch-up a bit with Keane and their new material, seeing as 'Spiralling' sort of happened without anyone's permission and blew the doubters to one side for a while there.
So, let's start at the very beginning. Hello! I am ChartBlog. I tend to talk about music as if it is a fine wine to be savoured, or a rich dessert which melts in your mouth, or sometimes as if it is a really stinky old cheese. Keane are a band who have, until recently, always been the kind of mild, soft cheese which is perfectly fine, an agreeable lunchbox treat, but nothing to brag to Gordon Ramsey about.
Now they are attempting to make the transition from Dairylea to gorgonzola, by introducing a maturing agent called Essence Of Bowie (or 'ziggycillin', to use its proper name). And the first batch resulted a song which, to anyone who isn't among the 500,000-odd people who downloaded it for free, is called 'Spiralling'.
Kinda ripe, eh? And this is the video for the new single , released via more conventional means.
Can anyone put their finger on what is happening here? That's right. Having turned down some of the whooshy reverberations, and pushed old moonface's voice into deeper, crooning territory and mucking with their own sonic template, people are saying there's a been a revolution in Keane's trademark sound. They are saying that the band have returned from their exile as transformed men, with the emphasis on 'men' and not, say, 'extremely lucky choirboys'.
And they are kiiiind of right. 'Spiralling' certainly is a startling break from tradition, and a really welcome one, but 'Lovers Are Losing' is an attempt to bring back the scared fans who just want some soaring anthemic pop with their bread and butter, and not something which will give them ulcers.
They are, in short, attempting to have their (cheese)cake and eat it. And apparently this is a hard thing to do, so well done to everyone concerned, but can we please have more bite next time? Ta.
Download: Out now
CD Released: October 20th
(Fraser McAlpine)
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