It’s not easy, being Keane. Taking the brunt of NME’s Bland Bashing, it seems even drug addiction can’t legitimise this band’s professionally yet ineptly cultivated image of edginess.
Press reaction to their latest offering, Perfect Symmetry, has been perfectly predictable – the middle aged Katie Melua Disciples feel smugly in touch listening to its eighties inspired electronic basslines, the slightly more self conscious Guardian reader tentatively acknowledges the trio’s ear for a well crafted tune, while NME unleashes a tirade that borders on the frenzied against former addict Tim Chaplin ‘or whatever the fuck he’s called’.
Keane seem to be a yardstick of coolness – the only way you can get away with listening to them is by donning some thickly black rimmed glasses, a vintage Mickey Mouse T-shirt, and adopting a lazily ironic expression. Perfect Symmetry is not going to earn any ‘parental guidance’ stickers, it’s true, and the French voice-over on Black Burning Heart is cringing, to say the least.
However, there is no lack of well crafted and catchy pop tunes on this album, Spiralling is a (hopefully consciously) cheesy nod to the decidedly non-ironic artists of the eighties, and Perfect Symmetry is as infectious as the tunes that keep NME employees up at night, gnawing on the bedpost with frustration.
So enjoy it as you would any other eighties-inspired guilty pleasure, along with The Breakfast Club, shoulder pads, and body glitter. Or if you’re too ashamed, crack out those glasses.
2 stars out of five.
