I don't wanna be old and sleep alone

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

09/07/06 : Under The Iron Sea - Keane

This is an album I bought, listened to at least twice, filed under "perfectly fine" and went back to listening to Hopes And Fears, their debut album.  My suspicion is that my opinion of "perfectly fine" is unlikely to change on one more listen.

But, do you know, I think my opinion has changed.  I'm no longer of the opinion that it's "perfectly fine" and now believe it to be "remarkably average".  Whereas Hopes And Fears has some well-constructed tracks which show some variety, this just all sounds like lazy mush - they just threw together some swirly piano sounds and laid some weak vocals very lightly over the top.  And I really didn't need 50 minutes of it either.  But, as I previously said, it was lazy mush that we owned which takes us up to seven for the year (can we make double figures?).

We're at #4 in the charts this week on their 4th week of a 41 week run with it peaking at #1 for its first two weeks (they were definitely trading on past glories there).  The rest of the top five were Muse (a new entry), The Kooks, The Zutons and Lostprophets (more on this next time) with one more new entry in the top ten - Johnny Cash at #9.

Wikipedia has more on the album than you might expect, but there's very little content.  There is one bizarre fact for you though - the video to "Atlantic" was directed by Irvine Welsh (of Trainspotting fame) which doesn't seem an obvious match.  There's also a track-by-track breakdown which has been pulled together by a complete fanboy - apparently, "Leaving So Soon" is the third highest tempo Keane track in their entire repertoire at 144 bpm.  I bet you feel better for knowing that now, don't you?  Apparently the album received "generally favourable" reviews (although any evidence for this is conspicuously lacking) and, somewhat unbelievably, it was voted the 8th best British album OF ALL TIME in a Q/HMV poll in 2008 (but Oasis were #1 and #2, so I think we can safely ignore that).  Whatever my opinion, it did very well commercially selling over three million copies and getting to #4 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" Travis, Athlete, Thirteen Senses and Starsailor - oh yes, there's a definitely likeness all round there.  As I might have previously intimated, I like Hopes and Fears but I'm afraid I won't be giving this any more of my time.

02/07/06 - Not a great album
16/07/06 - Exactly what I expected

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