Keane channels Bowie and Queen with Perfect Symmetry

After making two of my favorite recordings of the past few years, I was eagerly awaiting Keane’s new recording, Perfect Symmetry.  I picked it up from the Amazon website as a $3 download which is an incredible price.  I can definitely see a time in the near future where CDs are toast with pricing like that. 

I’ve listened to most of the songs at least once and I think I have to give it more time to make a clear assessment.  It’s definitely different than their first two cds.  There is a seventies British pop sound infusing the songs here. The first song, “Spiralling” reminds me a bit of General Public or Duran Duran while the third song, “Better Than This” brings early Bowie to mind.  This is tricky ground for a modern band to be treading on.  Since Keane already relies primarily on keyboards and synthesizers, throwing back to 70s and 80s pop tunes laden with distinctive and anachronistic keyboard sounds poses some problems.  After a few tries, I’m still listening but I’m not 100% convinced that this was their best decision.  If I’m still listening in a couple months, then I’ll know they pulled it off.  Time will tell. 

On another note, the Keane website has to be one of the strangest, poorly designed sites out there.  I can’t tell if it is really bad or if they are trying to make it feel disjointed and scattered on purpose (ala their CD cover).  Hopefully, the band will come through Portland on tour because I’d really like to catch them.  We missed them the last time through because of a cancellation on their part.  Hopefully they can avoid similar problems this time.