Strangeland

Here and on so much of 'Strangeland', we find ourselves in the company of adults attempting to make sense of their present situation. Life gets better, the human attachments you make grow deeper and, along the way, ambitions are realised. Out of that paradox grew not just 'Sovereign Light Café' and 'The Starting Line'. " You only need to hear the way the first verse cannons into a dizzyingly euphoric chorus to realise that Keane have delivered one of the festival anthems of the summer.

For all of that there are certain songs which, at a stroke, are unmistakably, quintessentially Keane. Songs like 'Disconnected' and 'Day Will Come'. "Some days set your world on fire/Some days they sink like stones," sings Tom on the latter, before lurching into a driving chorus that could rouse a corpse into life. A real once-heard, never-forgotten moment.

'Strangeland' saw the notion of fun resurface in the shared world of Keane in a way that it hadn't quite done since the sessions for 'Hopes & Fears'. Richard casts an eye behind him at the rolling Sussex scenery that encircles the studio Keane have called home for the last few months. "In many respects, it feels like the completion of a circle. On the album you have songs that draw upon the experiences we used to share as kids, growing up in Battle. You can never really go back, of course. We're married. Some of us have kids. Once in a while though, after a good day, we'll go to the local pub and talk about everything and nothing until it's time to go home. Whatever it is that makes us Keane - that invisible glue - is still there. And you can hear it all over 'Strangeland'."

Strangeland

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