Review: Keane

Review: Keane

Keane "Under The Iron Sea": Aidin Vaziri | It's funny. Young bands spend a lifetime angling for a record deal and all the luxuries it brings only to fall apart the second the world falls into their arms. That's the story of Keane, the piano-driven British trio that scored big with its 2004 premiere album, "Hopes and Fears," after seven years of struggle. With guitarless, rainy day hits such as "Somewhere Only We Know" and "This Is the Last Time," the disc inspired comparisons to Coldplay, sold millions around the world, earned the band a spot on the star-studded Live 8 bill, and made it popular enough to headline Madison Square Garden and land a ripe opening slot on U2's last tour. Yet when it came time to make a follow-up, the band fell apart. Singer Tom Chaplin was missing. Keyboard player and songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley was suffering from terrible bouts of anxiety. And drummer Richard Hughes was simply left wondering what was going on. "We wrote 'Under the Iron Sea' because we needed a record that was going to make us feel alive again," the band explains in the album's press material, and, sure enough, this is a darker, more complicated disc than its lovelorn predecessor. Simple romantic sentiments have been shoved aside for creeping bitterness in songs such as "Crystal Ball" and "A Bad Dream," while the dense arrangements throughout betray the band's knack for turning out an epic melody. The first single, "Is It Any Wonder," sounds like "Achtung Baby"-era U2, when the Berlin chill set on its earthy quest for glory. To hear Keane arrive at this point so quickly is at once encouraging and alarming. If the band can keep it together, its third album just might be a killer. With "Under the Iron Sea" it's literally sink or swim.