Album Review: Keane - Strangeland

British pop-rock four-piece Keane are riding the crest of a wave born from 2002's mega breakaway hit Everybody's Changing that peaked following the release of album Perfect Symmetry in 2008. Fourth studio long-player Strangeland sees things dropping off just a tad as the boys rein in the rough edges without straying too far from their radio-friendly balladry.

While Strangeland does indeed tread similar water to Keane's previous fare, there is evidence to suggest a certain degree of restraint has been applied to the album's 12 tracks, and in turn, washed the whole with an air of depth and maturity. For instance, Disconnected handles the pop-gloss production of the vocal and melodic synth lines by underpinning them with a driving rhythmic offbeat pulse. The preference for piano and synth over rowdy guitar lines has been the backbone of the band's sound since conception and is artfully employed with tonal variations in Watch How You Go and Black Rain. Singer Tom Chaplin's vocals are still that quite blissful mix of Chris Martin and Brandon Flowers, and for a lot of the time it sounds as though The Killers have wandered from the bright lights of the desert and into the plush grey offices of record execs.

The polished production does start to become tedious further in, with On The Road and Day Will Come bearing the brunt of this tinkering; there's some really nice synth and harmonic lines here and there but they're not enough to slice through Chaplin's unvarying dulcet tones. Ultimately it's the fresh approach to melodic structures on tracks like Neon River and In Your Own Time that lend Strangeland a sense of progression beyond Keane's prior releases.