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BUY THE Perfect Symmetry NOW!
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List Price: $13.98
Our Price: $11.99
Your Save: $ 1.99 ( 14% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Interscope Records
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 6025178557860
Label: Interscope Records
Manufacturer: Interscope Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Interscope Records
Release Date: 2008-10-14
Studio: Interscope Records
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Description of Perfect Symmetry
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Keane Photos
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Sounds like a Coldplay dance album
Comment: My first reaction was the title of this review: "Sounds like a Coldplay dance album."
The sound is bigger, less sophisticated than previous Keane's. Lyrics a bit terse, few stand out lines (Spiralling: "When we fall in love, we're only falling in love with ourselves.")
I'm enjoying this album, but liking the new Killers disc more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing Close To Perfection
Comment: I am a huge Keane fan and have long awaited this album. After the months of loyal anticipation and eager waiting, I was given the opportunity to take a peak at Spiralling from keanemusic.com. I can honestly say that I was horrified. It sounds like '80's pop, which I guess if you appreciate '80's pop, then you might not mind their wanna-be 2008 attempt at it.
I had read an interview with Tim Rice-Oxley about their upcoming third album where he mentioned incorporating influence from American rap into Keane's music. The link to the actual interview is gone, so you'll have to trust me on the accuracy.
http://bb01.sov.uk.vvhp.net/keane/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=42719 >> Here's another place where the interview is quoted.
How would you describe the new stuff?
Well we're trying to combine different genres. I think we feel like we have a lot of different influences, including electronic music and dancey stuff and American rap, and we've not really found a way of including that into our first two albums, so we're trying to just spread our wings a bit more now. I think we just wanna make a record that combines the energy of all these different kinds of music that we listen to. But it's very early days.
So will you be rapping then?!
Ha! I doubt it, but nothing is out of the question really. I think our feeling is that British music can be very cyclical. You'll have a burst of amazing boundary-pushing music every few years, but then it can also be very parochial with people obsessed by the guitar-type music that's basically the same thing that's been coming out of Britain for the last 30 years. I think Brits can be afraid of being uncool or doing something that's not quite allowed and that fear is what stops people from doing really exciting stuff. The people that we really admire in music at the moment - like Kanye West and even some of these American pop/rock bands like Panic At The Disco - are doing something that's a lot more exciting than most of what's coming out of the UK. So I suppose we're just trying to lose our inhibitions.
Anyway, when I first read that, I was scared that they would ruin their passionate, pure piano sound that radiates from Hopes & Fears (2004) and Under The Iron Sea (2006). This foreshadowing of the disasterous synthesizer sound was sadly accurate. I understand that the band wanted to put more of their other influences more prominently in this album, but I really don't agree with where they took the soul of their music to.
After all of this negativity, let me just say that I don't hate the entire album. So, to give you a better perspective, here are my ratings on each of the individual songs.
1. Spiralling - 2/10
- The only reason I didn't give it a 1 is because the tune is actually quite catchy and I find myself humming it sometimes before I realize what I'm even doing.
2. The Lovers Are Losing - 7/10
- I actually don't mind this song much at all. I really think it would sound good on traditional piano instead, though.
3. Better Than This - 1/10
- The wretched song heard at the very beginning makes me flinch every time. Nothing good about this song except the chorus is a kind of fun.
4. You Haven't Told Me Anything - 7/10
- This song isn't so bad either. Kind of boring, though. Nothing really going on in the background except for beeps and clicks.
5. Perfect Symmetry - 9/10
- If I had to pick a favorite song on the album, it would be Perfect Symmetry. It actually has some good piano in it! Sounds more like the old stuff.
6. You Don't See Me - 8/10
- Right by Perfect Symmetry as my favorite on the album, the chorus is beautiful. Again like the old stuff. Great lyrics. Some spots in the song are boring.
7. Again & Again - 7/10
- Really don't mind this song much either. The same stupid pattern of notes in the background throughout the song is awfully redundant, though.
8. Playing Along - 7/10
- Would be so much better with piano instead of boring and simple drum patterns.
9. Pretend That You're Alone - 4/10
- Boring drum beat in the background. I think that the tune is okay, but a little annoying.
10. Black Burning Heart - 8/10
- This song isn't bad at all, really. Just has boring drumbeat again.
Love Is The End - 7/10
- Boring song, but has some good piano in it. Again with the boring drumbeats, though. Stuff that I could tap out myself, which is sad.
In essence, I really don't like the album as a whole. Where did Tim Rice-Oxley's brilliant piano and passionate compositions go? Where did Richard Hughes' complicated, captivating ACTUAL drumset beats go? Where did the smoothness of Tom Chaplin's voice reflected by the beautiful piano go? Maybe I'm for the old school piano, though. If you are a fan of electric sounds, then you might not mind this album at all. But if you're like me and appreciate the traditional piano quality to music, then really just skip it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I Have Never Enjoyed Every Song on an Album Until Now!
Comment: I just cannot say enough about how awesome this CD from Keane is. I equally enjoy each and every song on this album, something that I can not say for any other album. A perfect mix of sad and uplifting songs, and I'm having a very hard time listening to anything else right now with these songs in my head. One of the best CD's ever, and if you have never listened to Keane, I would start with this album and then move on to their others.
I would give it 10 stars if I could!
Customer Rating:
Summary: All Keane is Good Keane
Comment: Lord, I love this band.
Keane's third full-length CD is a fairly daring departure from their first two. Synthesizer effects and 1980's-style electropop sounds abound, as several other reviewers have noted. But attempting to pigeonhole the music, it seems to me, leaves something out - namely, that no matter what the style, Keane brings to it their incomparable melodic sense and their gift for the emotionally stirring.
The record isn't quite as hummable as their debut "Hopes and Fears," but then what record is? Upon first listen to this one, my first impression was that it was the weakest of the three albums, but by the third listen, I found the pieces as fully infectious as those on "Under the Iron Sea," which is for my money their greatest. With each of Keane's terrific discs, we're talking in shades of five stars.
Unquestionably, there are some choices, particularly in the first couple of tracks, that are off-putting. I think in particular of a horrid synthesized "WHOOO!!" that rings in the opener, "Spiralling." An otherwise strong track is badly undermined by sonic effects that sound like they were lifted from a bad dance film circa 1983.
More often than not, however, the counterintuitive choices work. The third track, "Better Than This," begins with a weird, dissonant high synth sound, soon joined by Chaplin singing in a falsetto so high that even his super-elastic voice must strain. But soon the cut melts into a melodic refrain that is joyous, irresistible and impossible to categorize. It sounds to me part juju, part Jamaican, definitely World Beat-ish - my wife found it to be purely 1980s retro. Whatever; it's a distinct, incongruous blend of sounds, and it works. You'll be singing this one festively in little time.
Generalizations first: the music here is more complex and textured, certainly than on their first album, and at least as much as on their second. Piano isn't often used as a straight rhythm instrument here - when it appears, it's usually to add a note of delicacy to a fuller, lusher sound.
Despite the high concentration of up-tempo tunes on the record, the lyrics are fairly bleak, finding Keane often in a state of heartbreak, depression, disappointment or ennui. It's far from one-dimensional, though; their lyrics are achieving a touch of fine poetry, with the capacity to precisely evoke a distinct moment.
In contrast with their first record, which blasts out of the gate with five unforgettably catchy numbers, Perfect Symmetry has a somewhat reversed flow. The pieces grow in strength and meaning as the album moves along. Some of the first few seem a bit quirky, but by the middle of the album and on to the end, Keane is at their gut-wrenching best.
Chaplin is still the finest pop singer around, and on this record really tests the limits of his vocal range and power. His voice isn't presented "up close and personal" to the extent of the first two albums, though, so the listener has fewer opportunities just to luxuriate in his timbre. Still, there are a few cuts on which his voice will leave you gasping.
There are no bad songs on the album; they're all good, and some are truly great, adding to Keane's growing catalogue of classic pop pieces.
Now on to specifics: two highlights of the album are two gorgeous ballads, "Love is the End," and "You Don't See Me." "Love is the End" is the more intense of the two, and will no doubt be seen as one of Keane's greatest performances. "You Don't See Me," however, has a gentle beauty that is not to be overlooked.
One cut, "Black Burning Heart," exemplifies my reaction to this album. When I first heard it, I shrugged and found it unremarkable. On second and third listens, however, I found it haunting, perhaps the most emotional on the record, despite its standard up-tempo construct. This one really sneaks up on the listener; don't overlook it.
Two other standouts are "Again and Again," which may be the prototypical track on the record (80's style synth, urgent lyrics, danceable tempo) and "Better Than This," described above.
Upon repeat listenings, I find very little to criticize, other than the unfortunate opening to "Spiralling," and a sense that the song "Perfect Symmetry" isn't as portentous as Keane tries to make it sound. But still - those are both very good tunes. And for the record, I also like the jovial "Pretend That You're Alone."
Keane continues to grow, change, and to deliver the most distinctive, meaningful, exhilarating pop music around. This is yet another five star recording.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The road to disbandment
Comment: Oh what a massive disappointment. I liked Hopes and Fears. I loved Under The Iron Sea. I absolutely despise Perfect Symmetry. It's a collection of pop trash with weak lyrics and no real energy. Although, there is obvious individual growth among the members, as a group, they have lost ground. Such a weak album typically indicates creative differences and, unless something changes, means they won't be together much longer.
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