If you’re looking for one of the single best British export bands to have hit the US airwaves over the last decade, I’d say that Keane is one of the top ones. With Radiohead and Coldplay, Keane has been one of the most consistant and successful bands out there, with their first breakout album of “Hopes and Fears.” That album was followed by 2006′s album “Under the Iron Sea,” then “Perfect Symmetry” in 2008. While Perfect Symmetry didn’t sell nearly as well as Under the Iron Sea and Hopes and Fears have, that doesn’t mean that they haven’t been highly successful and changing.
But, if you’ve been waiting for the next installment of Keane’s awesome lyrical and haunting sound, then you can definitely be excited about “Night Train,” which is going to be coming out on May 11th. While it’s a very short album for them, with only 8 tracks, it has a collaboration with Tigarah, a Japanese MC, and the rapper K’Naan, as well as a track that features a vocal performance by Tim Rice-Oxley, the band’s keyboardist.
So where did the album’s concept come from? When on tour for Perfect Symmetry, the band wanted to come up with their entire album, or at least a single while on the tour, and it was train rides in between gigs that they liked to think. Spontaneous and creative, it looks like this new album is going to be what fans have been looking for, but something a litttle different from their previous albums. As with many bands, they find the challenge of developing a new album to be an interesting and enjoyable one, and none of them are at all plussed by the fact that fans were a little put off by the last album, but they certainly hope their ever changing style doesn’t disappoint again.
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