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2008年10月Teletext评论《Perfect Symmetry》
http://www.teletext.co.uk/PlanetSound/Interviews-Features/default.aspx
8/10
By John Earls – When many bands unveil a radical new direction, it’s often a sign they’ve lost the plot.
For every Kid A or Spirit Of Eden is a Satanic Majesties’ Request or Tin Machine.
Whispers that Keane had “gone dance” were understandably cause for concern. But, far more pop savvy than they’re generally credited with, they knew what they were doing all along.
Study their back catalogue closely, and the whoops and euphoric synths of first single Spiralling aren’t such a shock.
They’ve dabbled with ambient on B-sides and the first album’s Untitled 1. More obviously, Is It Any Wonder’s wah-wah FX and raw power was evidence there was always more to them than a good ballad.
Wonder’s accompanying album, Under The Iron Sea, was great. But, by necessity, it was a dark and troubled affair.
With Tom Chaplin healthy again, the trio are once more able to make music without any external pressures.
Main songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley’s love of Pet Shop Boys and A-ha is at the forefront, with an ’80s feel to the dance-led opening half.
Rather than cheesy nostalgia, it takes the adventurous spirit of the era’s synthpop and channels it into classic songwriting.
If Spiralling was a surprise, then just wait for the falsetto funk of Better Than This.
Over a whirl of Ashes To Ashes sci-fi riffs, Chaplin’s vocals are higher and more piercing than ever – it’s like a lost Chic production.
The air of disco madness continues into the slick choppy guitars of You Haven’t Told Me Anything, and Again And Again’s echoes of Human League.
It’s not an album where they’ve totally abandoned their trademarks.
The title track is one of Rice-Oxley’s state of the world addresses, Chaplin’s vocals never more consoling and warm in a song to rival Somewhere Only We Know for offering solace in an ugly world.
Best of all is Playing Along, which gradually morphs into a shoegazing anthem and their most dissonant, disturbing song to date.
It’s not perfect: Love Is The End is a ho-hum ballad, almost like a Keane pastiche and too downbeat to end such an adventurous record on.
Pretend That You’re Alone doesn’t quite come off either.
But the rest sees them happily experiment, emerging triumphant from their lab. Moreover, it’s now impossible to guess what a Keane record will sound like in future.
Posted 十月 9th, 2008. 添加评论
2008年10月英国《太阳报》评论专辑《Perfect Symmetry》
‘I have a lot of regret and guilt…but it happened and we’re through it’
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/sftw/article1761683.ece
By JACQUI SWIFT
Published: 02 Oct 2008
KEANE – Perfect Symmetry
Rating ****
IN an ultra-modern dressing room at BBC Television Centre, Keane are helping themselves to drinks (sparkling water, not alcohol) before their performance.
They are the guest band on chatshow Friday Night With Jonathan Ross along with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and comedians Simon Pegg, David Walliams and Matt Lucas.
They will perform track Spiralling (“at Jonathan’s request” beams singer Tom Chaplin), not once but twice for the excited, whoop-along audience and host.
And not because of any technical hitches either — the song sounds great — but simply because the crowd and Jonathan in particular wanted to see the song performed again.
The band — Tom, pianist and songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley and drummer Richard Hughes — were dubbed the posh lads of pop and ribbed for being addicted to port by Leicester rockers Kasabian.
Today, they look like a different band to the trio SFTW joined on the road in LA in January last year.
There they were trying to pick up the pieces following Tom’s surprise meltdown and stint in rehab in August 2006 following his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. Today, his puppy fat has gone — and he is leaner and toned.
Spiralling is an infectious, triumphant song that has already made fans and critics sit up. Half a million copies of the single were downloaded in a week.
Keane are clearly enjoying the fanfare. Recently a daily broadsheet said that the band that were once like cheesy Wotsits are now psychedelic Pringles with the sound of a band turning their frowns upside down.
Tom says: “It is true we probably have been quite serious and introspective and maybe a touch earnest on our first two albums. But you can’t perceive this record in that way. And certainly not with the process that we made it with, which was fun.”
Perfect Symmetry, Keane’s third album, takes the band to another level and back to the heyday of David Bowie and Talking Heads. Self-produced but with Rufus Wainwright producer Jon Brion and Madonna/The Killers producer Stuart Price giving a helping hand, it’s a different Keane than we ever thought existed.
Better Than This echoes David Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes and tells of the shallowness of celebrity life. You Haven’t Told Me Anything includes some of Tom’s best vocals and some squelchy synths, while You Don’t See Me features some poignant piano.
Tim says: “I love the idea that by the time we’ve done a few albums, people won’t be able to define what we are saying, or can say ‘Keane sound like this’, which you can with 99 per cent of bands.
“If you judge David Bowie on his first couple of records, they would think of him as the man who did The Laughing Gnome and a couple of other sh*t songs, basically. It takes time to develop your music and try new ideas.”
Fame came at a rapid pace for Keane, who were childhood friends. Perfect Symmetry is their third album in four years. But it was the success of debut Hopes And Fears, which sold 5.5 million copies, that sent Tom off the rails.
He admits it was all a bit too much and he got sucked into the “pop star” lifestyle, partying and drinking too much to give him “Dutch courage” to hang out with Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day and becoming a “k**b” while taking coke.
Tom says: “I feel like I am only now beginning to see things objectively. In the hysteria of it, it’s easy to get caught up in all the wrong things, which I did.
“I have a lot of regret and guilt about it all. But it happened, and the important thing is where we are and feel about the present moment.
“The fact that we’re still here and getting on so well, and have made this amazing record is something to celebrate.
“I think knowing as a band we could have lost it all, and nearly did, means this has been the most fun it has ever been since we became successful.”
Looking back, he says they didn’t know when to say, “Stop. We need a break.” He adds: “We were part of this non-stop touring machine with no control.”
On Perfect Symmetry Tom has taken up playing electric guitar at shows, while synths have taken over piano on other songs. There’s also saxophone and a musical saw.
He says: “I think the style of songs on the album lent themselves more to guitar than they may have done in the past — but I don’t think there was anything that was particularly calculated.”
They were inspired by Talking Heads, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and Prince. Tim says: “Yes, I think we owe Prince a lot for this change in style. I went to see him play the O2 last September. Absolutely fantastic.
“I think probably after that, some of the demos started to get a little bit funky. And it was good that everybody was then excited by that direction because I think we all thrive on freshness. Probably for all sorts of reasons we all felt excited by the idea of doing something new.”
There’s also a “new” member in Jesse Quinn, who takes up bass duties among others when the band play live.
Fiddling with his glasses, Tim says: “Jesse started playing bass with us when we did the War Child shows so we could play songs live and just run through them. It has continued for this album. He’s a huge part of Keane now.”
Tom confesses that his more adventurous vocal styles on the album came through getting back to a good place within the band.
He says: As soon as the demos arrived, I had this desire to articulate the things that Tim had written and stamp myself over them.
“This had been more difficult on our previous records as they were very intense, dismal and I guess nihilistic. On this album, as the songs came through, I felt this openness and sense of drama. I wanted to surprise people.”
Tim adds proudly: “It’s quite hard for a singer to change the way he sings. Most can’t do it but Tom did. He is a genius. A modern-day legend.”
Perfect Symmetry was recorded at Teldex Studios, a magnificent former ballroom in Berlin.
The city played a pivotal role in influencing the making of the album. The band took a 12-hour train journey there.
Richard says: “It added to the romantic notion of the whole thing. It is a fairly exhausting journey in a way. But we felt like we’d gone back to the days before planes. There was this sense of being in an old novel, ending up in the heart of Berlin.
“All the weird and wonderful folks that were on the train, like the woman in Sherlock Holmes clothes who’d go out and lie down to smoke.
“She would then get back on the train and carry on sipping wine. It was all a thrill.”
Tim explains how they chose the album title Perfect Symmetry. He says: “It’s about the extremes of the human condition. The way that people have this capacity for real greatness and achievement, yet also this ability to sabotage and destroy everything.
“I think that this album explores all of those themes — terrorism, people’s love of power, celebrity culture, society’s funny traditions and foibles.
“Better Than This is a good example of optimism among the darkness. We can do better. Spend your life doing something of real worth rather than chasing the dream of celebrity.
“Perfect Symmetry says, ‘Instead of blowing yourself up, why don’t you spend your time on this planet with the people that you love and make it a positive experience?’
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“I just hope people identify with those things and come away feeling it is a very positive message. Not just ‘Isn’t the world sh*t?’ type of album.”
Richard has bigger ambitions. He says: “I keep having this strange fantasy that maybe Barack Obama will pick up the album and it will help change the world.
“That somehow subtly it’s going to reach the most powerful man on the planet and help. That he gets what it’s saying and inspires him to make people change.
“We should make it our mission. Why not? It is probably a hopeless ambition but worth a try.”
Posted 十月 7th, 2008. 添加评论
2008年10月《Times》评价在伦敦Forum的表演
October 1, 2008
Keane at the Forum, NW5
Lisa Verrico 4/5
Hands up who foresaw Keane bouncing back with an Eighties synth-pop sound and the singer Tom Chaplin on guitar? Indeed, who imagined Keane bouncing back at all? After they failed to match the success of their debut album, the five million-selling, piano-heavy Hopes and Fears, with their darker follow-up Under the Iron Sea, there was a creeping sense that Keane’s moment had come and gone.
Then, last month, up popped Spiralling on the internet. Downloaded more than half a million times in the week it was available free, the single was a sleek, upbeat, synth-driven pop-rocker that had Chaplin shouting out lines like a PG Shaun Ryder. If it doesn’t end up in the lists of best British singles this year, Keane will have been robbed.
The forthcoming third album, Perfect Symmetry, isn’t all as adventurous, but on its first live outing it had enough surprises and potential future hits to win Keane a new army of fans. How many of the old ones will stay with them is another matter. Certainly, there were a few surprised faces when Chaplin strode on to a stage decorated with geometric patterns – OK, different-coloured triangles, but it still looked good – clutching an electric guitar and squeezed into a pair of skintight jeans he couldn’t have got past his knees last year. Their songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley had electric keyboards piled up round his piano and a bass player had been added to the line-up. Only Richard Hughes, the drummer, let down the band’s more aggressive look by wearing a pastel pink T-shirt.
Opening with the first single The Lovers are Losing, released next month, was wise. A mix of old and new Keane, it gave fans the chance to adjust. Not so Better Than This, a stripped-down ode to Visage and Ultravox with a nod to XTC’s Making Plans For Nigel, the skittery beats-backed You Haven’t Told Me Anything or the spacey, pacy Again & Again, which was almost completely unrecognisable as Keane.
The problem came when trying to slot old hits into the set. Everybody’s Changing and Somewhere Only We Know started mass sing-alongs, but their much slower tempo brought the energy on stage to a standstill. Moreover, Chaplin sang the new songs with a passion absent from the old, dropping to his knees, jumping on the drum riser and attacking his guitar. Whisper it quietly, Keane just got cool.
Posted 十月 2nd, 2008. 添加评论
2008年9月《卫报》评论:成功的转变
A successful turnaround
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/05/popandrock
Keane are no longer soundtrack material for middle-class tantrums. They now have the sound of a band turning their frowns upside down
Jude Rogers
The Guardian, Friday September 5 2008
Question of the week: what the hell has happened to Keane? Their third album, Perfect Symmetry, comes out next month, and by the look of the neon CD that’s popped through my door, something’s gone wonky. The Keane I knew were the aural equivalent of a packet of Wotsits – cheesy, old-fashioned and weirdly comforting, but likely to raise bile after several bites. By the look of them now, they’ve been at the psychedelic Pringles.
Over at Popjustice.com you can see the change for yourselves. There’s Tom Chaplin with a new haircut, and a big yellow zip-up just like a new raver. His bandmates Tim Rice-Oxley and Richard Hughes stand by his side, resisting the attack of some bright blue set squares. It’s a peculiar tableau; one that suggests a maths class viewed through a spectrum of drugs, rather than a mum-pleasing band liked by Magic FM.
On the surface, then, the prospect of Keane 2.0 doesn’t bode very well. For starters, there’s nothing more embarrassing than an established band trying to be trendy. Even worse, it’s been 12 months since the Klaxons’ primary-coloured pop won the Mercury Prize, and 18 since their debut album, Myths of the Near Future, reared its daft, woozy head. New rave had been blasting around dancefloors for a whole year before that, so Keane’s attempt to hijack that look makes it appear like they are jumping on a bandwagon that’s already left town.
But here’s the thing: the buggers get away with it. Perfect Symmetry is a sparky pop album, a million watts brighter and bolder than their previous two records. It crackles with electronic sparkle rather than sluggish pianos, and it sounds full of hope, rather than dull, whingy sentiment. It’s no longer soundtrack material for middle-class tantrums, but the sound of a band turning their frowns upside down. And I say, good on them. After all, Keane are doing two brave things. First, they are trying to do something new. Reinvention in pop is a tricky thing to get right, and few bands try it. Most remain like proud packs, creating illusions of fraternal togetherness while they crank out the same, turgid songs. Eccentric individuals are much better at the caper, although men don’t do it much today, either. The musical offspring of David Bowie are almost exclusively female, with Björk and Alison Goldfrapp being rare examples of current artists who are happy to play with their worlds of performance.
Second, Keane are also being brave by embracing the pop of the 80s. I’m not talking cool, glossy electro, or the excesses of Italo disco. I’m talking about the slick, shiny greatness of bands like ABC and a-ha. Their producer, Madonna’s old charge, Stuart Price, has harnessed these sounds well, and given good ballast to his charges’ catchy melodies. He also helps remind us how good pop actually was in the mid-80s, and helps rescue its clout from the Guilty Pleasures brigade.
By reinventing themselves and reinforcing pop’s legacy, I also think that Keane are being canny. After all, being a huge act isn’t an easy ride any more. They’ve already made two albums of sad, epic rock, and they’re not relying on their fans to put up with a third one. They’re trying to widen their eyes, and in these difficult times all big acts should follow suit.
Two recent experiences brought this home to me clearly. The first came two Saturdays ago outside Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, when I saw touts slashing ticket prices for the opening night of Madonna’s world tour. The second was a week later, when I saw REM play to a half-empty Twickenham Stadium. For bands of this size, live music was supposed to take care of their financial future. On this evidence, it certainly won’t.
What interested me was how both parties responded to their situations. Madonna seemed irked with her audience, shouting sarcastically at the fans in the back who weren’t screaming loudly enough. By contrast, REM seemed emboldened. They rocked through their back catalogue with pleasure, twisting old songs into beautiful new shapes. They sounded fresh and immediate, and in a peculiar way, just like a new band.
Keane do, too. With both them and REM burns a fiery reminder of why they started in the business, why their musical pasts matter, and how they feel their presents should follow. What’s more, their reinventions work, because they brim with energy and life. Energy, in fact, that could never be invented.