Under The Iron Sea

It’s bizarre how many of the biggest bands in the world are beginning to sound like each other. It’s almost as if the powerbrokers in the multinational record companies have found the winning formula for rock acts to crossover to the mainstream and decided to add a little dash of it to everyone on their roster.
There’s a whole plethora of acts who sound like they’re Coldplay doing U2 on Stars In Their Eyes. Which at least makes it a whole lot easier to fill in those odious ‘If You Liked This…’ boxes at the end of web reviews.
Keane’s sophomore effort Under The Iron Sea, is a case in point. Make no mistake, pianist and songwriter-in-chief Tim Rice-Oxley is still capable of conjuring up the kind of melodies that wrap their tentacles around your lugholes with studied insidiousness. The album’s opener ‘Atlantic’ is a linear progression from Keane’s debut Hopes & Fears, all swelling keyboards, soaring vocals and more mid-paced melancholia than you’d find in a Merchant-Ivory film – although the middle-eight is frighteningly reminiscent of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ‘Alone Again, Naturally’.
Similarly, ‘Nothing Left To Say’ is possessed of the kind of chorus that’s going to be bellowed by hundreds of thousands of scruffy festival-goers all over Europe this summer, while simultaneously being hummed by homemakers, commuters and coffee table musicologists.
This is Keane at their best. Their biggest asset is the ability to write the kind of anthemic pop songs that appeal equally to non-militant indie kids and casual radio listeners alike. Indeed, they seem capable of writing torch ballads like the Ian Brown-esque ‘A Bad Dream’ or ‘Try Again’ in their sleep. But when they try to vary the formula, the results are decidedly mixed.
The gorgeous ‘Hamburg Song’, a first cousin of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’, is one of the highlights. But the second track in, ‘Is It Any Wonder?’, sets out a completely different stall for the piano-driven three-piece, with what sounds like a barrage of distorted guitar twiddling that wouldn’t be out of place on Achtung Baby. Contrary to assumptions however, it’s actually the sound of an old synth played through a host of guitar effects pedals. The bass riff too feels like it was lifted straight from the Adam Clayton songbook. That said, Tom Baxter’s boy-soprano-gone-awry voice is vastly different to Bono’s and the song adds a welcome note of urgency to their trademark bittersweet balladry.
The uptempo ‘Put It Behind You’, on the other hand, sounds a little forced, while ‘Leaving So Soon?’, the throbbing instrumental ‘The Iron Sea’ and ‘Broken Toy’ have the feel of fillers.
Despite the driving rhythm and upbeat melody of lead single, ‘Is It Any Wonder?’, Keane’s second album is, for the most part, comprised of the same winsome pop that helped their debut shift over five million copies worldwide. There are five songs as good as the best bits on Hopes & Fears – and others may be growers. But I can’t shake the feeling that they might have waited a few months until they had more gems to decorate their second effort with.
Still, it’ll sell by the truckload.