Keane – Hopes & Fears

Artist: Keane

Title: Hopes & Fears

Label: Interscope

Rating: 6/10

OUR LINE: Somewhere between Travis and Coldplay.

THE GREAT:
“Somewhere Only We Knew” – Brilliant. Yes it is a Coldplay ripper, however you can’t deny this is a great song. It reminds me of “Yellow,” not in the way it sounds, as you have to listen to it ten times in a row before you are ready to let it go. If it weren’t for Coldplay than Keane would stand alone instead they appear as a band trying to be somebody else by popping off a wonderful song.
“We Might As Well Be Strangers” – Simply beautiful.

THE AVERAGE:
“This Is The Last Time” – A decent song that finds itself in a bad place trying to follow up “Somewhere Only We Knew.”
“Everybody’s Changing” – Nice, not great.
“She Has No Time” – Too much falsetto and too much like Travis and Coldplay for its own good. Keane won’t distinguish them with a track like this.

THE BAD:
“Untitled 1” – With its Coldplay guitar picking and very poor vocal effects it sounds like a bad dream.

FRANKLY: Keane sounds too much like Coldplay and it will hurt them. “Somewhere Only We Know” is brilliant but if you hear it on the radio the only thing you’ll ask is “I didn’t know Coldplay had a new album coming out.”

+ Rae Gun