Perfect Symmetry is way off

Keane goes overboard with jazzercise-style synth.

By Rachel Post

Published Oct. 20, 2008

When Keane released its second album, Under the Iron Sea, it became clear that the British trio wanted to take an experimental approach to their music, and they received much praise for the album's single, "Is It Any Wonder?"

But where Under the Iron Sea retained much of the same techniques and sounds as their first album, Hopes and Fears, Keane's third album Perfect Symmetry, released Oct. 14, is unfortunately nothing like the former two.

Long gone are soothing piano, drum and vocal tracks. Instead, Keane resonates '80s retro pop, with obnoxious, cheesy synth and forced lyrics overpowering most of the album. While Hopes and Fears might have evoked images of a lush, calming forest, Perfect Symmetry evokes the image of an '80s jazzercise class in which the participants are clad in neon-colored spandex ensembles.

Keane's experimentalism paid off on Under the Iron Sea, but the extremism of Perfect Symmetry is disappointing, unsatisfying and overall not Keane - or at least the Keane that fans have come to deserve.

The album begins with "Spiralling," a distasteful retro, synth-driven, shakily-sung track. To its credit, it does catch on a bit, but it is still nothing like Keane's past work. Its lyrics begin with a cry for a moment. "I'm waiting for my moment to come/I'm waiting for the movie to begin." It continues with a bitter cry to a lover who did not support the writer, and profoundly states: "When we fall in love/We're just falling/In love with ourselves." But the song takes a weird turn, musically and lyrically, with: "Did you want to be a winner?/Did you want to be an icon?/Did you want to be famous?" and so on.

One who has listened to past work, whether it be "Somewhere Only We Know" or "Is It Any Wonder?," is left asking, "Where did this come from?"

Musically, Keane's new sound is simply obnoxious. The synth is completely unnecessary and unwarranted on songs including "The Lovers Are Losing," "Better Than This," "You Haven't Told Me Anything" and "Again and Again."

Tom Chaplin's vocals are incredibly stressed and rough, trying to keep up with the high-energy synth. Even the drums are unnatural, taking on hasty tempos that belong with a powerful rock band rather than a British alternative group.

This is not to say that the album is insincere; Keane's lyrics are as genuine as ever, just bombarded with dreadful music this time around. For example, lyrics from "Better Than This" include: "Holding my photograph up to the window/Through the paper and refracted sun/I can see all the things I wish that I'd done."

"Black Burning Heart" and "Love Is the End" are vaguely reminiscent of Keane's past work, but the former is still frequently bothered by the aforementioned synth, and in the latter Chaplin's voice doesn't sound like it should.

The final track is a lesser version of Coldplay: The guitar and Chaplin's vocals are trying, whether intentionally or not, so hard to be Chris Martin and company.

Throughout the entire album, Chaplin's voice, for the most part, sounds unnatural. Keane is best when it is simply piano, relaxed drums and Chaplin's natural vocals. Although Keane's attempt to break out of the niche it began in may gain some attention, the new sound doesn't suit the band.