Keane bids adieu to uplifting ballads and ushers in a different style -- '80s-influenced pop -- with
Perfect Symmetry. While the album isn't solely devoted to exploring that new genre, it's certainly the focus, and "Spiralling" appropriately kickstarts the set with whooping vocals and retro synthesizers. "When we fall in love," sings
Tom Chaplin in his Wembley-geared voice, "we're just falling in love with ourselves." Coming from the same mouth that once crooned the over-earnest strains of "Somewhere Only We Know," those lyrics are wholly different -- a sign that four years spent in the shadow of
U2,
Coldplay, and other like-minded bands have convinced
Keane to make their own
Achtung Baby. Of course, that album saw
U2 turning sonic experimentation into something entirely inventive, which
Perfect Symmetry doesn't quite accomplish with its own mixture. This isn't quite art, after all; it's mostly just fun, shot through with a self-consciously cheesy approach that's engineered to sound little like the department-store rock of 2004's
Hopes and Fears. "Fun" seems to be at the top of the band's agenda, though, and
Perfect Symmetry accordingly succeeds in doing away with most of the pre-conceived notions that accompany
Keane records. The "old" sound doesn't even surface until midway through the album, when the album's title track offers up a combination of sparse piano notes (later giving way to dense, double-fisted arpeggios) and a meteoric melody in the chorus. But that's the exception, not the rule, and
Perfect Symmetry sounds more comfortable during its truly unexpected moments: the spacy blips and bleeps of "You Haven't Told Me Anything," the synthesized anthem "Again and Again," and the energetic "Wooooooh!" that opens the entire album. The band's underlying strength remains
Chaplin's ability to turn a melodic phrase with grace and dexterity, which fails to lose its vitality no matter the musical context, but
Keane's willingness to take these left-hand turns deserves its own share of accolades. [A two-disc deluxe edition was also released, with demo recordings comprising the second CD.] ~ Andrew Leahey