Under The Iron Sea : Keane : Review : Rolling Stone

English piano-drums-voice trio Keane made big, theatrical songs cut with Coldplay-style melancholia and a boatload of sad-eyed hooks on their 2004 debut, which earned them a smash in their home country and a degree of success over here. Under the Iron Sea is outfitted with darker, less immediately accessible songs and bigger doses of atmospheric keyboard, but it offers some of the same tuneful pleasures as the debut, with big-voiced Tom Chaplin digging into his big bag of swooning choruses on piano ballads like "Crystal Ball" and the catchy, gently lilting "Nothing in My Way." "Is It Any Wonder" starts like an outtake from The Bends, all swooshing rhythms and edgy murmurs, then gives way to a big, keening refrain. With more tracks like "Atlantic," a slow-burner full of widescreen gloom and shapeless crooning, Under the Iron Sea could have turned into an arty mishmash. But depending on your taste for high romance, it either adds up to heart-tugging pop or nice dinner music.