Working with Dan Grech-Marguerat, Keane look to split the difference between the piano-driven, MOR sound of their first two albums and the late-‘80s style of Perfect Symmetry. The hollowness of Strangeland’s I’m-okay-you’re-okay writing might be a more forgivable offense were the album’s production not so consistently garish. Even the mopey “Black Rain” has some awkwardly worded advice to dispense: “If you’ve got love/You’d better hope that that’s enough.” “Day Will Come,” a recitation of clichés, has no real narrative or emotional conflict, and neither “On the Road” or the similarly themed “The Starting Line” bothers to develop the sense that anything tangible is at stake for the “you” that Chaplin addresses, so the vague promises of lights that lie ahead and of finding a better life on which the songs hinge are simply rote.
Most of Strangeland consists of anonymous platitudes that are too empty-headed to be uplifting. However puzzling that choice may be, at least it shows some degree of creative intent. Opener “You Are Young” forces vocalist Tom Chaplin to shoehorn the line “You’ve got time to realize you’re shielded by the hands of love/Because you are young” into the song’s meter, while the ridiculous climax of “Sovereign Light Café” finds him shouting, “Yeah, I’m going where the people know my name,” recasting the song as a dead-serious spin on the theme from Cheers. That isn’t the case on Strangeland: Far too many of the songs are marred by mixed metaphors and awkwardly constructed lines that speak to the overall sloppiness of the album’s writing. With a tracklist that reads more like a list of chapter titles from a self-help book than actual songs, Strangeland plays as though the band is trying to give themselves a pep talk-and at this point, they desperately need one.Įven at Keane’s peak, principal songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley’s songs teetered on the verge of being overwrought and maudlin, but there was at least refinement in their construction. Unfortunately, the AAA radio mainstays’ fourth full-length effort, Strangeland, only mires the band (now a quartet, thanks to the addition of bassist Jesse Quin) further in an identity crisis.
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Keane alienated a good half of their fanbase with the chintzy, ‘80s-inspired Perfect Symmetry and then proved they had no idea how to right the ship on 2010’s dreadful Night Train EP.
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