Keane: Perfect Symmetry : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Who'd have guessed that Keane were the new Thompson Twins? The piano-happy trio have been lumped in with Coldplay and other anthemetic Brit-pop groups, but on Perfect Symmetry (co-produced by Stuart Price and pop whiz Jon Brion), the keyboards have turned bubbly, the tunes have taken a chipper turn and songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley has begun channeling his inner Howard Jones. The result is a surprising pleasure: 11 songs that exhibit Keane's talent for heartstrings-yanking melody but also tamp down the grandiosity with Eighties-ish pop pep. "Spiralling" and "Pretend That You're Alone" are irresistible dance-pop corkers, and "Better Than This," with a keyboard hook lifted from David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes," is catchier yet. Keane still have a tendency to get mushy and melancholic when the ballads get big (check out the meaning- of-life musings on the synth-whipped title track), but even the mopiest moments leave you in good cheer.