MAKING UP over A BREAK-UP
After a seven-year glitch, Keane are . . .
KEANE: Cause And Effect (Island) Verdict: Emotional comeback ★★★★✩ LIAM GALLAGHER: Why Me? Why Not (Warner) Verdict: He’s (almost) mellowed ★★★✩✩
BAND reunions are usually nostalgic affairs that allow musicians to boost their bank balances while revisiting former glories. Not so with Keane, whose first album in seven years is a rewarding addition to a catalogue that has already yielded five chart-topping LPs.
It would have been easy for the East Sussex group to update the pop anthems of 2004’s Hopes And Fears or the Euro rhythms of 2008’s Perfect Symmetry. Instead, they’ve done something fresh without abandoning their fondness for a good tune.
Cause And Effect is a break-up album inspired by the end of keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley’s marriage. It examines the roots of his romantic discord — ego problems; ‘the little lies and alibis’ — and the distressing consequences.
As Keane’s main songwriter, he addresses his problems with bluntness, bleak humour and a lack of self-pity. His words, true to form, are given an extra edge by Tom Chaplin’s soaring, choirboy vocals, and this return takes its power from a renewal of the duo’s enigmatic partnership.
One of the reasons Keane took an open-ended break in 2013 was because Rice-Oxley and Chaplin found it hard to communicate, but they bonded over a set of new songs that left them desperate to work together again. Those songs are more grown-up than before, rather like the disparity between the teenage heartbreak of George Michael’s Careless Whisper and the genuine sadness of the later Jesus To A Child.
‘Hopes And Fears was a breakup album, but it was written when I was 19,’ says Tim. ‘It’s different when you’re older and have kids.’ They soon cut to the chase. You’re Not Home lays bare a sense of guilt, pain and quiet desperation. Love Too Much mixes melancholy lyrics with a memorable hook, a classic Keane one-two.
The band were never as wholesome as their image suggested — Chaplin has twice been treated for cocaine addiction — and rock’s unlikely wild men address their demons on Strange Room. If all this male introspection sounds like heavy going, it isn’t. Keane’s appreciation of a pop hook has seen Rice- Oxley sought out by Kylie, and his melodic skill lights up The Way I Feel.
There are faint echoes of the band’s darker second album Under The Iron Sea. Put The Radio On is a ballad of romantic deception. I’m Not Leaving is a reminder that Keane, in their early days, were often likened to Radiohead.
With its dense instrumentation, David Kosten’s production is rich. But Keane have a singer — and the songs — to hold their own on a return that is more than a victory lap.
LIAM GALLAGHER topped the charts with As You Were and wisely keeps the same backroom team for this sophomore effort.
Producers Andrew Wyatt and Greg Kurstin again co-write with the charismatic Gallagher and the upshot is a sharper, stronger set of songs with a contemporary sheen.
LYRICS are again a weakness, but the former Oasis frontman sings with tuneful conviction. Shockwave is a vitriolic glamrock stomp. One Of Us, all strummed guitars and strings, could be about his brother Noel. Halo, sung with a rasping sneer, is a Stones-meets-Bowie rocker.
Why Me? Why Not isn’t just about settling scores. Liam also shows his sensitive side, looking back at lost youth on Once and celebrating domestic harmony on Now That I’ve Found You.
‘I know my strengths,’ he says. ‘I’m an OK songwriter, but a great singer.’ One with a burgeoning solo career.