2009年2月Theregoesthefear.com评论伦敦O2 Arena表演

Live Review: Keane at London’s O2 Arena – Thursday 12th February 2009
Theregoesthefear.com
http://www.theregoesthefear.com/2009/02/live-review-keane-at-londons-o2-arena-thursday-12th-february-2009.php

Keane live at London’s O2 – 12th Feb (side)“Music for Bedwetters” the legendary Alan McGee christened Keane. The Creation Records founder is usually right about most things, however he seems to have got Keane’s audience completely wrong. At the first of two sold out nights at London’s vast O2 Arena last night, everyone from grannies to teenagers to toddlers were present.

As front man Tom Chaplin commented, their first gigs were in venues smaller than their B-Stage on this tour, and his stage personality has certainly grown with the stages they’ve filled. Playing such big arenas on this tour has seen Tom go from a decent stage presence to a full-blown Bono impression, short of the preaching about the 3rd world.

Opening up the evening, we finally got a chance to catch the hotly tipped Frankmusik. He took over the arena’s stage like it was his own, taking his beatboxing, electro dance tunes a la old style Moby mixed with Calvin Harris to the masses and converting the hoards with the catchy hooks and recognisable samples.

Once the stage was set for Keane, they burst out, triumphantly opening with “Lovers are Losing”, they pleased everyone, playing the classics (Somewhere Only We Know, Everything’s Changing), the current chart hits (Perfect Symmetry, Spiralling) the fan favourite rarities (Sunshine, Snowed Under) and the obligatory new ones. 22 songs in 105 minutes isn’t bad pace for a well seasoned band, let alone some East Sussex kids who were unknown just five years ago.

Starting off the evening slowly, the light display was modest however as things progressed, the national grid was tested to the limits, with Again and Again featuring some computer game graphics on the huge screen behind the band, and A Bad Dream a rather haunting video of war-era dancing in gas masks. The production values were distinctly ramped up, with a B stage inviting a return to their early days, playing to an almost empty room at the Hope and Anchor in north London. Tunes like “Snowed Under” offered a chance to go back to basics.

Coming to the end of the tour, Tom’s voice wasn’t at its best; however this inevitably led to the mass yell-along to “Somewhere Only We Know” towards the end of the evening. Croaky, he took a break to let the crowd do what they do best: “Angels” for the bed-wetting generation, if you will.

Closing out with the usual mass-hug-along of “Bedshapped”, it was sadly time to go home. Whatever you may think of the Battle three piece, they sure know how to put on a good show and have some great pop tunes. Granted, they’re no Arcade Fire or other critics current hype band, but they do what they do best: make great tunes for the mainstream.

Setlist:
Keane: London’s O2 Arena, Thursday 12th February 2009:

Lovers are Losing
Bend and Break
Everybody’s Changing
Better than this
Again and again
A bad dream
This is the last time
Sprialling
Try again
Sunshine
Snowed under
You haven’t told me anything
Leaving so soon
You don’t see me
Perfect symmetry
Somewhere only we know
Crystal ball
–
Playing along
Black burning heart
Is it any wonder
Bedshaped

2009年2月Plymouth表演评论：激情澎湃

Keane to thrill
Friday, February 06, 2009, 07:00
Thisisplymouth.co.uk
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/features/Keane-thrill/article-675110-detail/article.html

CURRENTLY at the peak of their creative powers, Keane are back to play Plymouth Pavilions on Monday performing tracks from Perfect Symmetry, an album described as “a million watts brighter and bolder than their previous two.”

It’s a real triumphant return for a band who could so easily have gone their separate ways not so very long ago.

Remember the scenario? Songwriting maestro and keyboard wiz Tim Rice-Oxley recruited angel-voiced lead singer Tom Chaplin for the creation of their lush melodic debut album Hopes and Fears, but with the massive success came inevitable tensions.

As the gregarious frontman, Tom revelled in the adulation, while Tim retreated with embarrassment.

“With the second record we went straight off the road into the studio when we really needed a break,” says drummer Richard Hughes, “and that sowed the seeds for a lot of problems…”

The follow up album, Under The Iron Sea, followed a well-documented psychological battle between the two fuelled by Tom’s cocaine addiction, resulting inevitably in an oppressively dark offering.

Perfect Symmetry finds the three-piece in an altogether more positive mindset – hence the title.

With their differences pretty much behind them, and a real sense of relief that they didn’t actually split, the trio have reinvented themselves yet again, with a little help from US producer Jon Brion (Eighties dance guru and producer of Madonna’s Confessions On A Dancefloor).

“Jon coming on board was a massive influence,” says Tim. “We were in a good place already but he gave us the confidence of not thinking, of not self-editing: not worrying what people are going to think or even what you’re going to think! Let’s face it; the worst that can happen is that the idea doesn’t work.”

And it’s not difficult to hear a distinct Eighties influence coming through:

“The boldness of that time is something that’s really frowned upon today,” says Tim.

“We’re living in a time when it’s cool to be Eighties in a retro way, but if this record sounds like that it’s probably because I associate some of those songs – Pet Shop Boys, Mel and Kim, Salt’N'Pepa – with a fun, innocent time. I absolutely don’t care what’s considered to be fashionable or cool or tasteful; it’s much more about following our own instincts.”

The result is an adventurous explosion of life-affirming energetic pop in which the band have thrown caution to the wind and simply gone with the flow.

In short, it’s a real winner for the lads who initially gained their reputation as one of Britain’s best guitar bands – without even having a guitarist – and are now considered one of the most talented bands anywhere in the world.

It’ll be a real thrill to see them perform tracks from the album live on Monday at their sell-out Pavilions show.

2009年2月CD Times评论Cardiff表演

Keane – Cardiff International Arena – 4th February 2009
http://www.cdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=5462

It used to be easy to write off Keane as the winsome and even less hip siblings of Coldplay but times are changing and maybe the drugs did work as, on this evidence, Keane have shredded the earnest-indie blueprint and have set a new course for the Land of Make Believe. Close your eyes and you could be forgiven for believing yourself transported back to a time when Spandau Ballet and ABC ruled the top 40 with sequinned fists. Heck, even with your eyes open the stage set, featuring blocky retro graphics straight from the ZX81, screams 1980s louder than David Van Day in a set of deely-boppers and pink legwarmers.

Closer inspection, however, reveals the fraud, we’ve been hoodwinked for the stage is not populated by New Romantics, those glamorous, angular starlets from a planet yet undiscovered but, rather, by the Eton bob-a-job week scout group. Yes there may well be a touch of glitter on Tom Chaplin but it fails to paper over the cracks of a band that just don’t quite get it. Sure you can rip off Bowie and churn out some old school pop music but if you don’t look the part it is a dereliction of duty. There’s no excuse really, Duran Duran were from Birmingham of all places but by God they had you believing in their hype – of course Le Bon lives on a luxury yacht in the Med, what could be more natural? Nicky Wire wore a feather Boa on the streets of Blackwood, his weekly receipt of a bloody nose a badge of honour awarded for going the extra mile for your art. Must do better Chaplin!

Yet, despite this failure to ultimately convince where it matters Keane have nevertheless succeeded in confounding critics and fans alike with their new direction. They must surely be congratulated for this reinvention as there was evidently plenty of mileage left in the tedious, drab safety of lumpen indie fodder, as Elbow will undoubtedly testify. So, on balance, this must be regarded as a brave move and, therefore, a ‘good thing’ and, based upon this reception, the fans have already taken that the leap of faith; some are even dancing. Dancing to Keane! Was this not one of the harbingers of the Apocalypse? Hell, there’s a lot to be said for providing the public with a bit of fun and I certainly won’t be damning this band for having the balls to take a new direction.

Forget what they teach you in school these days, the 80’s was the zenith of pop music. Sure it was easy to sneer at the Durannies from behind your copy of Sounds (with Andrew Eldritch scowling from the cover) but time has proven that cynicism to be misplaced and the pop of the 80’s is now revered as the golden era. The girls, as ever, knew where it was at and now those ageing boys, having filed away their copies of Mojo, are left standing at the back of a Snow Patrol concert wondering how the hell it ever came to this. Listen to an old man, John Lydon is now advertising butter substitutes on national television; there was a future after all and it was in promoting dairy produce. Go on say something outrageous…What’s that Johnny? Probiotic yoghurt is overrated? What a clever boy. Credibility has been debunked, so ditch the shackles of your oppression and get out and celebrate the new-found joy of Keane before the fading of their light.

2009年1月《Guardian》采访报道：“我们犯的错误够多的了”

‘We’ve made plenty of mistakes’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/13/keane-music-rock

It wasn’t just drug addiction that tore Keane apart; the band’s brutal work ethic nearly destroyed them, too. They tell Maddy Costa how they learned to love making music again

Maddy Costa
The Guardian, Tuesday 13 January 2009

Words don’t come easily to Tim Rice-Oxley. The songs he writes for his band, Keane, are earnest meditations on human emotions, modern politics and global violence, and he is quite content to let them speak for him. An introverted interviewee, he will sit for long periods in silence, and much of what he does say (save a few barbed remarks directed at his bandmates) seems wrenched from his soul. So when he says that Keane spent the first half of 2008 experiencing “everything you could dream of as a band”, you don’t dismiss it as hackneyed exaggeration.

The trio spent those months recording their third album, Perfect Symmetry, travelling to studios around the world, experimenting with guitar riffs and Rice-Oxley’s collection of 1980s synthesisers. At night, they “sat up in various bars until four or five in the morning, putting the world to rights – which, for me, is pretty much the ultimate place of happiness”. Then came the realisation that they actually had to put the record out. “By the end of that process, we were really proud of what we’d achieved. But the moment we started worrying about everything that comes with an album – artwork, videos, gigs, interviews – you suddenly realise that you’ve made this thing that is going to be judged. That’s kind of a thrill, but I also felt a weird sadness about it having to become a product. You know that the passion and intricacies that have gone into making the record can’t possibly be things other people can experience.”

Perfect Symmetry wasn’t a unanimous hit among critics, but plenty celebrated its exuberance and spirit of adventure. It shot to No 1 in the UK, and is now well on its way to selling a million copies worldwide. In songs such as Spiralling and The Lovers Are Losing, Rice-Oxley’s lyrics are as emotionally raw as ever, but this time wrapped up in bright, buoyant, 1980s-influenced pop – a significant departure from the sometimes stolid melancholy of the band’s earlier records.

Singer Tom Chaplin thinks these songs have had a marked effect on the band’s live performances: “They’re so fun and energised; they’ve made the live show that much more exciting.” He isn’t being unduly big-headed. I saw Keane play at the Forum in London last September, and it was clear that both band and audience were having the time of their lives.

Keane’s enthusiasm is rooted in an awareness that Perfect Symmetry might never have happened. Two years ago, the band were on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Chaplin had abandoned the band midway through a tour of Japan and checked himself in to the Priory, to combat an addiction to cocaine and alcohol. Rice-Oxley and Hughes, meanwhile, were struggling to cope with the pressures of fame. Keane’s debut album, 2004′s Hopes and Fears, had sold 5m copies, and none of them knew how to deal with such rapid success. “I always imagined that bands would have people around them who knew the drill, knew exactly what was going on,” says Hughes. “But we do everything ourselves. We have had to learn from making mistakes – and we’ve made plenty of mistakes.”

Among these mistakes was a prolonged failure to communicate. Much has been made of Keane’s background: they have been mocked for being polite, middle-class chaps from a village in East Sussex. What gets ignored, though, is the British reserve that goes with this, the politeness that doesn’t want to admit to feelings of unhappiness.

Rather than talk about what were, in fact, shared problems, the three band members stopped speaking to each other while recording their second album, 2006′s Under the Iron Sea. This breakdown in their friendship was all the more traumatic because the trio have known each other since infancy: Hughes thinks he and Rice-Oxley may have met “at some village fete when we were about three”, and Rice-Oxley has known Chaplin since he was born, because their mothers were friends.

Making music has always been integral to their relationship. Chaplin was nine when he first formed a band with Rice-Oxley, and just four when he started recording his own songs. “I’d press the notes on my little Casio keyboard and sing ridiculous things like, ‘I am so cool.’” (“Virtually nothing has changed,” notes Rice-Oxley, drily.) “We weren’t precocious,” says Hughes. “It was more making our own fun. If it was raining, we’d try and find something to do indoors. It was just what we did in the holidays.”

Rice-Oxley says that forming a proper band didn’t become a serious ambition until “our education ran out. You suddenly think, ‘Fuck, what am I going to do with my life?’” He persuaded Chaplin, three years his junior, to abandon a degree in art history at Edinburgh University, and move to London. Because of their upbringing, thinks Chaplin, “people have this notion that Keane were handed everything, but it wasn’t like that. We struggled really hard, not just because it’s difficult anyway but because we’re not particularly natural musicians.” It took four years of knockbacks before the band signed a record deal.

Their tenacity was almost their downfall. Getting signed, says Rice-Oxley, became “an obsession that defines your life. And when you do sign a record deal, that goes up by a factor of 10. You want more and more. None of us would have dared to say, ‘I don’t want to do that tour’, or ‘Can we just have a break?’ We were still in that mindset where we were desperately chasing the thing that we’d been dreaming of for years and years.”

At their nadir, it wasn’t just Chaplin who was in the grip of addiction; the entire band was addicted to achievement. Rice-Oxley believes that “the drugs were almost an outlet, rather than a fundamental problem. As soon as we started to confront the fame and touring-related issues, everything immediately became much easier.”

Chaplin agrees. “A lot of the things people said in the five or six weeks when I was in the Priory I didn’t feel were very appropriate to me. The most important thing was that it was the first time in probably four years where we had to stop, and there was no music, nothing going on. It gave me time to think about the band, and my life, and all the things that had happened to us.”

The failure to take any time off between their first two albums was the band’s other big mistake, and one they won’t be repeating. The day they were supposed to start recording Perfect Symmetry in August 2007, says Hughes, “we ended up sitting out in the sunshine chatting – and realised we wanted to do a bit more of that, and a bit less sitting inside a room playing music”. So they took the next four months off. If Perfect Symmetry shows signs of Keane travelling in unexpected directions and discovering a lightness of spirit, that’s why.

The trio have already started thinking about their fourth album: taking inspiration from Prince and the band’s recent “chaotic”, semi-improvised gigs, Rice-Oxley hopes it will be a more loose-limbed affair than its predecessors. First, though, they have to tour Perfect Symmetry. Their newly relaxed approach means that they’ve been able to start appreciating the thrill of performing live again. Before they got signed, says Rice-Oxley, “every person who turned up to a gig, or bought your single, felt like a victory. During the Hopes and Fears tour, we started to take that for granted a little bit.”

Just as they no longer take their audiences for granted, they no longer take each other for granted. “We’re more carefree,” says Rice-Oxley. “If one of us felt that we had to say, ‘I just don’t want to be in the band any more’, I think we’re more prepared for that now.” And if Keane did come to an end? Chaplin has become intrigued by the Hadron collider and thinks he might study science. Hughes, already a committed human rights campaigner, wants to work for Amnesty International. Rice-Oxley, typically, keeps any future plans to himself. I suspect he wouldn’t be out of the music world for long.

2008年10月Clickmusic评价《Perfect Symmetry》

http://www.clickmusic.com/articles/9323/Keane—Perfect-Symmetry.html

Rating:4/5
Becky Reed

So many bands give press blurbs about radical new directions, but how many follow it through? On third album ‘Perfect Symmetry’, Keane sound like a band putting together their first album – it’s crammed with ideas. There’s none of the polish of the first two, as the majority of the tracks do not feel smoothed over to the point of blandness. However, there was never anything bland about Tom Chaplin’s voice, which drove Keane’s previous work. Here the power of it actually takes a back seat to the playfulness of a band who sound like they’ve been let loose in an Aladdin’s cave of studio equipment. This very eagerness has unleashed a fun side to Keane, but this is not an album merely of “see what we can do” – there’s nothing haphazard or half-hearted about it.

Opener ‘Spiralling’ is the most immediate track, and made even previous Keane dismissers (like this very reviewer) sit up and take notice. Pretending that the inexcusable talking section is not there, ‘Spiralling’ is a vibrant, joyful racket, paying tribute to the best of the Eighties – think ABC. Keane fans of old are eased gently back with ‘The Lovers Are Losing’, which takes the Tim Rice-Oxley formula of huge choruses over melodic grandeur and beefs it up. Here begins a theme recurrent throughout ‘Perfect Symmetry’, one of clawing yourself out of restraints and of re-evaluation. It’s a monster of a song, and inevitably buoyant, thanks to Keane’s sonically heart-stirring effect.

Off to unchartered territory with the Bowie-meets-XTC ‘Better Than This’, Chaplin’s falsetto telling of the emptiness of celebrity aspirations. The sparse electro-pop feel works even better on ‘You Haven’t Told Me Anything’, although you get the impression there’s a beast of a full-on disco version just begging to be made. A track that suffers from its own subtlety – remix, anyone? The piano is back for the title track, which has good intentions, but is trying too hard in its earnestness. Songwriter Rice-Oxley has recently said this to be the song he is most proud of, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the likes of ‘A Bad Dream’.

A return to strengths is the elegant ‘You Don’t See Me’, which grabs you with its haunting, lullaby-like verses. The synths are whipped out for ‘Again & Again’, one of the finest examples of a complete pop song on the album. Definite highlight is ‘Playing Along’, an intense, melancholy track, with Chaplin’s bluesy vocal building up to a dramatic repeated refrain of “I’m gonna turn up the volume ’til I can’t even think”. The guitars (yes, guitars) add to the atmosphere, leaving a long-lasting impression – beautiful, soulful, one of the finest songs Keane have written. In stark contrast, ‘Pretend That You’re Alone’ is a ‘Graceland’-style feel-good energetic romp which is enormous fun, all handclaps, bass guitar (yes, bass) and singalongs.

‘Black Burning Heart’, alas, is standard MOR fayre that is pleasant, but feels unwanted alongside the thrills and spills of what preceded it, and the plodding closer ‘Love Is The End’ is not in fact a fitting finale to an otherwise intriguing LP – it leaves you craving more synths, more guitar, more daftness, more of the spark. When listened to alongside the first two albums, Keane overall have turned out to be pretty far removed from the insulting “middle class” dinner party music tag. In fact, ‘Perfect Symmetry’ makes you completely rethink them as a band – ‘Hopes & Fears’ and ‘Under The Iron Sea’ become both fascinating precursors and non-guilty pleasures as you realise they have so much to offer. Epic stadium ballads, soft rock, indie disco, electro, blues – it all works. Listen without prejudice.