Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Keane - Night Train Ep

Nothing is more exciting and exhilarating than waiting in deep anticipation for one of your all time favourite band's to release more awe-inspiring material.
So, when you, the loyal fan finally get your hands on said material, one becomes overpowered with elation, coupled with the feeling of completeness, and fulfillment.
And only then, after the first listen all the way through, do you begin to feel yourself dying inside. The original spark has died, and you have been let down.
Following a two year hiatus, pop heroes Keane have returned with an 8 track Ep, 'Night Train', which appears rather ironic when the tracks within reflect the once unique and achingly musical minded band no longer travelling on the right track. The general tone of this collection seems to pick up where the previous album, 'Perfect Symmetry' left off, with its epic soundscapes fused with paranoid themes, sprinkled with glitchy 'eighties' quirks, offering the odd delicate moment here and there. This in itself suggests that the band haven't adapted their direction much in their two year absence; this is disappointing.
However, the collection cannot be written off completely, and after all, this is just an initial reaction.
The opening nugget 'House Lights' truly is a great piece of instrumentation, creating a gradual build of haunting electronic bleeps, white noise effects and muffled yet hurried rhythms, ultimately hinting that both the track, and the album, could be heading in a dark and electronically constructed dimension. But, at only a minute and a half in length, this introduction fails to fully take off, rendering it good, but not satisfying.
Other tracks that are relatively interesting here include warped ballad 'Back In Time', 'Clear Skies' and the chilled 'Your Love', all of which nodding gently to the more soft elements of Keane's back catalogue, complete with thought full lyrics and themes. The Ep's closer is a head scratcher in the sense that, upon first glance, it appears not only as a great Keane track, but also as a great love song. Yet, somehow doesn't hold as much power as it perhaps should. But, definitely a potential grower, and definitely the best track on this Ep.
The remaining tracks, which include first single 'Stop For A Minute', 'Looking Back' and 'Ishin Denshin (You've Got To Help Yourself)', act as brief glimpses into the current head space of Keane, and all the bizarre combinations of sounds and ideas that are bouncing around. Both 'Stop For A Minute' and 'Looking Back' plod along at an alarmingly boring pace, and both feature Somali-Canadian singer K'naan who tries his best to add some unnecessary 'spark' to the proceedings with bog standard rapping. Whereas, 'Ishin Denshin (You've Got To Help Yourself)' is basically bizarre on all counts. Well bizarre for Keane. It floats along to a cheesy eighties beat while Japanese born Tigarah provides vocals creating an adverse dream like atmosphere, which instead of being inspiring, just seems twisted and laughable as a piece of music. Then again, if this is in fact the direction Keane are travelling in, I applaud it, because nobody else would dare pull off such a ridiculous yet incredibly catchy pop gem.
Ok, so on the face of it, 'Night Train' is no 'Airbag (How Am I Driving)', or any other classic Ep for that matter. From start to finish, Keane take the listener through whats cluttering up their collective conscious; a mix of weird and obtuse influences, ideas and themes that shouldn't gel, being held together purely through decent songwriting. But then again, maybe that's all this effort was meant to be. Keane really are a great band, and even though 'Night Train' sounds like a sorry excuse for two years work, the band's superbly crafted songwriting certainly exists here, and this Ep could well be a social experiment, gauging if the fans are still listening.
It's a hell of a risk, but it might just work! A potential grower methinks. This listener hasn't died just yet.........

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