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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Keane’s debut album ‘Hopes And Fears’ is one of this year’s best, and I don’t agree with Neil’s assertion that it’s "production-line lite-indie". I think the Sussex trio have written an important-sounding, emotionally literate record, dropping the guitars and instead using powerful percussion and striking piano to underpin Tom Chaplin’s stunning voice, which swoops and soar across the album’s 12 tracks. And I think it sounds fucking great.
‘Hopes And Fears’ is an honest record made by an honest band who wear their heart on their sleeves and who don’t have any claims to being a 'rock' band. Keane are three, well-educated, musically proficient men who just happen to come from a middle class background (which for some is a non-starter straight off - pathetic). Keane have made an uncomplicated and warm album that also happens to be comfortable and radio-friendly, something which must really rile the indie purists/snobs that populate this site.
I’ve also got a problem with Andrew Future’s review of ‘Hopes And Fears’. Andrew reckons Keane fans listen to "lowest common denominator daytime rock" and "shop at JJB Sports". Talk about tarring everyone with the same brush! Using myself as a case for the defence against this condescending clap trap: I’m a single, white male, earning a reasonable wage. I shop where I like and I wear what I want. I have an eclectic musical taste which takes in The Broken Family Band, Hope Of The States and Squarepusher but I also like supposed ‘bedwetters’ Coldplay and Snow Patrol. I also happen to think I have a fairly sunny disposition despite facing the same day-to-day struggles as pretty much everyone else i.e. trying to pay the bills on time, saving up to find somewhere of my own to live, and seeing my favorite football team relegated to Division Three.
So, if that means putting on the Keane album, enjoying it, losing myself in it, and yeah, fuck it, crying to it (see ‘relegated’, ‘Division Three’) than I must be a bad, bad boy because as 'Somewhere Only We Know' says “I’m getting old and I need something to rely on.” I like Keane and, no, I’m no longer going to apologize for it.
Words: Anthony Gibbons
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
This is great - not because I like Keane too (although I think the album's a little overproduced), but because it's good to see someone acknowledge that it's possible to have varied tastes. In December of last year/ January of this year, I saw Keane and Metallica in the space of a month...
Fine for people not to like it - but I'm also with Anthony in his hatred of the stereotyping of music (middle class/dinner party/JJB sports customer etc. etc.), which is just deeply patronising. For my part, I'm mostly a rock fan with some indie pretensions and there are a lot of bands out there - Starsailor springing immediately to mind - that bore me to within an inch of my life. But I really like Keane. No idea why, nor do I feel the need to explain.
I put on records to make me happy. And I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like Keane - but to single them out as the cause for problems with radio playlisting/ record companies/ the record industry/ the decline of western civilisation as we know it is just stupid.-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Both well defined opinions.
I don't have anything against Keane, I just can't like them in the presence of better music. -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
i have the album, i'm entirely indifferent to it. the singles are great, the rest of the album is variable. it's great to fall asleep to. neil robertson's article was better written, even if i agree with this one more.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Sometimes the most impassioned defences are the simplest ones. We can't all be Keats.
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Irthlingborough Diamonds are going back to your Sugar Daddy's league. There is only one team in Northants - and their supporters aren't bandwagon hopping glory supporters. No hard feelings though.
Oh, and Keane aren't that bad but they certainly aren't that great either.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
are you a northampton supporter in disguise? we'll be kicking your arse next season and no mistake. actually, we've just signed a couple of donkeys from wimbledon mk dons so then again... :)
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Ooh, Northampton v Rushden forum fight. Wow.
My opinions on Northamptonshire football teams:
Northampton: Good. For the first 5 mins of their cup game v United earlier this season I thought they were going to win.
Rushden: Fake. Hopefully they go back to the Doc Martens League.
My opinion on Keane: I'm sorry but I don't like bedwetter indie. The problem is that there are far more talented bands out there who don't get signed cos of bands like Keane making nice little ballads with string sections in them, which ppl in their 30's and 40's buy.
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Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
>My opinion on Keane: I'm sorry but I don't like bedwetter indie. The problem is that there are far more talented bands out there who don't get signed cos of bands like Keane making nice little ballads with string sections in them, which ppl in their 30's and 40's buy.
Oh come on. By all means dislike them but avoid all the usual cliches. I'm 31, but most people at the two Keane gigs I've attended were a lot younger than me. The 'bedwetter' label is just meaningless. And no band hasn't been signed just because of Keane. Plenty of bands haven't been signed (or have been dropped) due to the idiocy of record companies and radio playlisting. But none of this has happened because of Keane.
Incidentally, there are no string sections on the Keane album... if you care.-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
glad this is finally up. it's honest, passionate & sincere. and i'm too much of an evil bastard...
vive la difference. or something..
neil -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Yes I don't agree with stereoptyping, it's foolish and uneducated. Disliking a band should be because of their music etc, not because of any other half-arsed excuse.
However, it doesn't detract from the fact that I still find Keane, its music and its lead singer extroadinarily, well, <i>irritating</i>. The only emotion their music engenders is slight boredom and a desire to grind ones teeth. (Apart from when they are in interviews, busy being dismissive yet chuffed of now-frequent comparisons to Coldplay - when they're just downright annoying.) -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
How are Rushden 'fake'? Because they're not called Irthlingborough any more? Or because they had an investor invest a lot of money? So... for a club who are already small to not be 'fake', and thus 'real', they must be financially crippled, and unable to raise money to fund growth?-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
for me their 'proficient' musical talent doesn't lead me to believe anything about their hearts on their sleeves. pretty much anyone can learn how to play a piano - but the difference between a good band who use pianos and a bad band who use pianos is what they do with them. i'm sure if rock had been dominated by pianos instead of guitars, Keane would be regarded as the Busted of our generation - radio-friendly plinkyplonky melodies that act as a 'way in' for anyone still clasped by the sweaty hand of the mainstream music industry. And, as with Busted, the band need to be taken with a pinch of salt. We can lie safe in the knowledge that we know of a shitload of better bands who are doing the same kind of thing - and when anyone tells us 'i like keane, do you know anything else like them?', we can jump into a half-hour-long list of bands bearing similar traits and the reasons you should buy their albums with your, or your parents, hard earned cash.
the article sounds like anthony only half believes that the 'powerful percussion and striking piano' is really all that powerful and striking.
but thats just my opinion, and it's very early.
mike.-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
I said this a few Keane threads back...
Can we talk about someone else now? I'm not sure why we're still discussing something that's not new/revolutionary/consequential.
They've had their two hit singles and album.
It's over.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
That's precisely how i feel. why does dis need to care about bands like this? they're inconsequential apart from the fact they're as bland as dido, and if you're bland enough, you can get some media attention. booorrrring!-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
why are you still posting replies to Keane threads then? i bet you both secretly sing along when they're on the radio.... -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
if you feel that, take the article down, boss.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
are keane the ones who play piano, wear leather jackets, try to dance seductively whilst graspin a micraphone and singin about some kinda fruit.
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Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
But I don't think we should ignore a band just because they're successful. It says so in Almost Famous.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
we can ignore them i think cause i heard they had a hugh following of teenage girls, not to mention that apparently they've converted mass of oasis fans-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
haha good point, seriously though you say, i quote
" we can ignore them i think cause i heard they had a hugh following of teenage girls"
great argument for ignoring them then isnt it, they have girls between 13-18 who like their music big whoop, this means that we have to ignore them now yes? fool santaslittlehelper, find me any decent band that people know and i bet anything teenage girls, however many like the music, as for "they've converted mass of oasis fans" once again..who cares great! oasis fans like keane, and let me guess, you've gathered all this persuasive information for your argument from one mate who's into oasis and recently told you he likes the sound of that new Keane song, and one female friend who's got tickets with 2 other mates to their concert.. fool-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
I think you'll find that most of the bands you rate highly also have/had huge followings of teenage girls. -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
I have said it before and I wil say it again. They are a very great and talented trio with a great and massively selling album, a shining light light in the gloom of the utter shite that is in the charts at the moment, They are unmanufactured, written 99% of there own songs and have not gone down the cheap and irratating road of covering other bands work to get famous.
No matter what some Arseholes say about them and their fans, I myself live in a village 2 miles away from Battle were Keane grew up and I am a true music Lover of all genres of music from Classical to jazz, Indie to some Hip Hop, Enya to Mettalica, Runrig to Eminem, Irish folk to Dance and some of the modern stuff, though I would like to see Britney Spears lose her voice as she looks Far better than she sings, I am twenty years old and work a decent whack and also wear and shop where i like and enjoy nightclubbing and brass bands, Should I or anybody for that matter feel ashamed of the music they love, Fuck off should I!
So that Tosser reviewer of the Keane album on DIS should never be allowed to air his views again as he resorted to genralising of fans in order to put down me and the band which I love, If he thinks they are shit then that's his right to and I respect that, but for that slagging off of fans he should get of his condesending high horse go get a life!-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
As a fan of Coldplay, I too thoroughly resent being tarred with the same brush as Keane fans.
Everyone knows that Coldplay fans wet the bed with SPUNK.-
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Sorry this is late- encouraging comment, here. -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
But if pianos were the dominant force, maybe they would play guitar, or harp or something? -
so....?
whats the problem with teenage girls rating a band?
how does that affect anything
thats seriously the most stupid comment iv seen ne1 make
nobhead -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
AND GIRLY JUICE!!!!!!!!!!! -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
How on earth is this piece of writing considered web-worthy? Anthony likes Keane, but, then, so what? It's hardly as if his opinion is worth a shit: he reckons The Walkmens' 'The Rat' sounds like The Las.
And I deeply resent the idea that a trawl through the squalid little biography of one Anthony Gibbons somehow substiantiates Keane's brilliance. He wears what he wants and he listens to The Broken Family Band: so what? It doesn't make me think less of Future's review. It makes me think Gibbons is an indie pygmy who obsesses over his own lifestyle at length.
Above all, I don't see why Anthony felt the need to write this article. Keane certainly don't need him to fight their battles. They're a mainstream success story and, if they play their cards right they're set up for life. Do you think they give shit that a miserable nobodies like me find them dull as fuck?
Damian puts it best when he says: "I really like Keane. No idea why, nor do I feel the need to explain."
I sure wish Gibbons had felt the same.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
"It makes me think Gibbons is an indie pygmy who obsesses over his own lifestyle at length."
Bullshit. I'm 5ft9 for a start and could kick your arse back to hertfordshire any day of the week. also, I'm not an indie saddo. i have a life. i don't just sit around all day listening to keane on repeat while masturbating furiously over a picture of charlotte hatherley (once a day usually does the trick).
must go, the england game is on. i suspect you sir probably prefer train spotting. twat.
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Keane would be so proud of the hate they inspire. and the funny thing is.. their music is so harmless!!
i thought the lil biography thing was great, playing on the categorisation of music tastes and types of people.
but why get so worked up? if half of you took your heads out of your arses and stopped thinking so damn hard about what you listen to you'd get so much more enjoyment out of music. -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
I thought the blurb for this article was total genius -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
they have wet dreams coz they don't have sex. except for chris martin, of course, once.
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
That review just screams 'nice' to me, all I gathered from it was that they're alright, and its not a bad thing to like them. Doesnt really sell the fact why you like them, just that its not wrong to do so.
I personally find nothing interesting about Keane whatsoever, but thats just me. -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Does anyone know that Keane haven't got a guitarist?
Crazy.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Really? gosh.
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
hmmmm - I suspect that a particularly constructed press release trigged the flavour of this article - it seems to be the in thing amongst record labels to generate a love / hate thing around bands - fuck it its always worked at getting 'the faithful' to be even more so - so that they get so obsesed that they forget that their band can also be shite at time as well and go out and buy 14 copies of each release.
I am drinking cider and listening to Northside (whos album I remeber buying 3 copies of in 1990 in disgust at its chart position) - which I thoroughly reccomend - (the drinking and listening - not the excessive buying) -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Oh and thanks for pointing out to me about their lack of guitar - now I understand why they just sound unfinished!
(ps I also recomend Flowered Up) -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
How Rushden are fake (in one sentence):
Because they were invented by one man with little popular support a little over a decade ago from two teams, both of whom lost their idenities in the merger, Rushden even lost its club altogether, and who proceeded to cynically buy 'success' knowing all the time he had neither the will nor probably the means to sustain it, so now all that will happen is an infinitely more unpopular outfit than the two precursors will sink back to down to the obscurity they came from (not Div 3 as some might think) and then Northampton Town will go back to being the most loathsome team in Northamptonshire and we can all be happy and gang up on MK Dons.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
I totally agree. Music should not be put down becuase it sounds just a little like something else. I do agree its overproduced - too many computer sounds. But its still a brill listen and i like it.
I think you've definitely put the idea of them into words best though!-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Oi, since when have the cobblers been 'loathsome'? One thing I have found as a fan of ntfc is when you tell anybody who you support it's guarenteed someone will think it's hilarious to call us 'a load of cobblers' or something simlilarly cringeworthy. We are an honest, traditional, 'proper' club who currently happens to have a great boardroom and an even better mangaement set-up. The problem is that having achieved this situation, other teams get envious, the bookies give us ridiculously short title odds and we become 'loathsome'. Franchise FC, alongside dim-ones (seewhatididthere?!) will always be a hell of a lot more loathsome than the team to field the first black player in the football league, the team who moved from the old fourth division to the first and back down again within six years and the ONLY team this season to beat every champion of their respected nationwide football league (Norwich, Plymouth, Doncaster). So there. Ner-ner.
Onto musical matters, just saw jad fair tonight - he was ace. Also, the pixies were incredible on saturday - the best 'big' show I think I've ever been to. Badly Drawn Boy supported and he was even worse than the last time I saw him...-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
"The problem is that there are far more talented bands out there who don't get signed cos of bands like Keane making nice little ballads with string sections in them, which ppl in their 30's and 40's buy"
Nonsense, are you seriosly suggesting that record companies work like this, that if Keane were dropped, then 20 small bands would instantly would be picked up. Nah. If Keane stop selling records, then they would be dropped, and then a new artst in a similar style would be cultivated in their place.
Record companies, as i understand it, have structured rosta's, so certain budgets for whatever genre/market/type of band.
Also, why does everyone hate 40 year olds, i mean, all the time people criticise people for becoming older and having a job, like they're selling out or some bollocks. I wouldn't be surprised if exactly the same percentage of 40 year olds as 18 year olds were buying Keane. -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Yah, it's like Yogi Berra once said: "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Cobblers are loathsome purely and simply because they always fucking beat us. And they had Twatkins as manager. He's a cunt.
And now he's our manager. Fucking horrible.
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
What is 'bedwetter' indie?-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
indie that makes your bed wet.
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
I think Keane are a weak band, great he can sing, but wheres the freaking imagination, theres not one stunning piece of music, or harmonisation, or anything that makes u want to cry with emotion. Its just a nice voice over some basic piano chords! Feed the masses with bollocks music that they can listen to 'cus its easy on their ears!-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
true, it is over produced, but great all the same. im in a band myself, and we dont have a guitarist either, so im all for bands with something different. the piano and the drums complement each other brillaintly. i have the album, and theres some great songs on there.
whatever anyone says, i love keane!!! -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
a waek band? what are you on? have you actaully say down and listened to some of ther stuff? admitlidly that albumn isnt as good as it could have been, but tracks like somewher only we know and we could be strangers are bloody brilliant!!!! his voice is fantastic, the piano and drums complement each other perfectly!! and so bloody what if they havent got a guitarist? who gives a shit? they dont need a guitarist!! just beacuse they dont have one does NOT class them as bed-wetting weak music. i personally am in band wiht just bass guitar, drums and keyboard, so fuck the lot of you!! i fully support any band who does something abit differernt, and keane are just brilliant. and anyone who doeant fucking agree with me needs ther head examined.
well that was fun
please excuse the bad spelling
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
What do you mean "over produced" how crap is that comment, you make it sound like you like the band but you don't really want to be show like it that much to appease the people who dont like it on DIS. Fuck em' if you like then say so and if they dont like it it shows them up to be very narrow mind towards the other people's tastes!
Christ people just get on with listening to the music instead picking holes in it all the time!
I think Keane are the best band out at the moment and I love 'em, they are not my best band ever, but i still love'em. Shout me down if you must but remember what I said earlier. -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
for all who criticize....
I Can"t believ what i read! Keane is emotionally
involved! we all look for our inner conflicts and they kinda reveal them! they are true, authentic. then when i read some of you saying" keane is shit" i cant believe it! im sorry but keane is authenticism..then for you authenticism is shit ? weird huh ? i think you 'd better know what you're talking about before saying somethin'! and above all avoid giving examples like " they have no guitarist" or " their fan are teenage girls so we'd better forget them"...thats stupid.-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
ROCK MUSIC - GUITAR = ROCK MUSIC WITHOUT THE ENERGY THAT MAKES ROCK'IN ROLL GREAT IN THE FIRST PLACE-
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
ok, you know when first rock n'roll was heard on radio in the 60's people thought it was the expression of evil and that this sound had to be stopped cause it was against some religious convictions.....your reaction makes me think about that as for you keane is in a way a shame for what we call "rock'n'roll music". briefly you say that keane isnt rock music cause they have no guitarist....thats only YOUR affirmation cause i wonder if you have ever heard them..if so do you think they really need a guitarist ? or do you definitely reject them cause they have no guitarist ? i mean just listen to their music without judging them cause there is no sound of guitars on their tracks..keane's sound is just great! thats why they are original and new maybe....cause they have no guitarist....and if you think it is just because they dont need one.
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Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Maybe this is getting a little out of hand, after all, Idon't think Keane are pretending to be anything - just MOR indie right? It isn't for me, and to be perfectly honest I have this strong desire to slap them, but that's music. Even the stuff youdon't like stirs the passion.
As for not having guitars on the record, fair enough - but why - but why bother with bass as well on someof the tracks? If it was a deliberate decision to have no guitars on the album or on stage then why not make it universal?
Anyhows, like I said, they're not my cup of the proverbial - the only plus side I can see is that bands like Keane or Athlete or Maroon 5 could get the kids/MOR lovers into some less mainstream-radio music, and that's gotta be worth it, right? -
Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
i am a massive keane fan and i couldn't give a shit what anyone else thinks. everyone is entitled to an opinion. but reading some of the posts here i just wanted to say it is pretty pathetic to resort to petty name-calling (bedwetting?!) immature remarks about a singers sex life, accusations of converting oasis fans (newsflash: it is actually possible to like more than one band at a time) and having a big following of teenage girls. since when did any successful band not have a big following of teenage girls? since when did it matter? if you don't like the music a band make, fine. if you want to post about them, fine. but back up your comments. don't just make ridiculous sweeping generalisations about their fans or personal remarks about the band. we are no longer in the playground. -
Re: Hopes And Jeers: A Keane Fan Speaks Out
Finally! I've come across someone with some sense in his head. I listen to Keane all the time, and "Somewhere Only We Know" is my favorite emotional song. I also like Eminem (he's hilarious). I enjoy listening to Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Weezer, The Killers, and sometimes Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, and Green Day.
I live in America, so not many others here recognize Keane, but I could pinpoint one of their songs from a mile away. Tom has a captivating voice. And to those who like to make fun of the band, why are you even wasting your time talking about them?
People are idiots.
I'm a 16 year old girl, therefore most assume I know nothing about nothing. But I know music, and anyone who puts down such a successful band doesn't know jack-crap.
At least Keane doesn't sing about screwing every girl in sight, and doesn't have a dozen slutty women in bikinis riding up on the band. They don't touch base about being rich or tough or famous. They put into words and melodies what I feel inside. That is respected music. And anyone who disagrees can go sit in a closet and play with their imaginary friends. Because that's all they're ever going to get.
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