With a beautiful opening track in Somewhere Only We Know it’s no wonder Keane are up for the Mercury Music Prize. It’s a brilliant ballad, with incredible vocals that would melt even the most evil people in the world. Perhaps. The music is sublime, the lyrics honest and delicate, providing a hook to the rest of the album. A superb opening track, and one of my favourites on the album.

It’s a helluva lot softer, than what I normally listen to, but I can’t deny enjoying some truly great music and songs. This is the Last Time is another such track, different, to Somewhere Only We Know, it’s very catchy and in some regards, perhaps unlikely as it is, reminds me a bit of the classic A-Ha tracks, albeit not as cheesy, but it’s anthem-like and depressing, and I love it.

The third track, Bend and Break is not a song about shatter proof rulers. It is a by the numbers sort of track. But it’s fun nonetheless. I wouldn’t rate it highly on the list, but it is fast paced and over very quickly anyway.

We Might As Well Be Strangers is another gentle ballad, a pretty sad song, and essentially a self explanatory track. It’s really good, I love the violins, the piano and the melancholy, less brash vocals, until we get to the chorus, and then there’s fine tuned bellowing. It’s a lovely track, it’s pretty much the theme of the album in many regards, but it’s good stuff.

Released as the first single of the album (I believe) Everybody’s Changing is the most catchy track of all them all. The sort of song you go to a gig to, with your lighters shining and everyone doing the sing along. I would never fucking do something like that, but it doesn’t take away from a well polished, and tender track with stunningly good vocals.

The final track, Bedshaped is ok. It doesn’t really do anything for me, and by this time you get a bit sleepy over the album

Another favourite track on the album is Your Eyes Open, it has a dipping chorus, and is slightly more sinister I guess. It doesn’t have the fun or the light attitude of the other tracks, and is perhaps as dark as it gets. It isn’t dark at all, but to give you an idea, this is as dark as it gets! An enjoyable pop song, very Coldplay, but different, if that makes sense.

I’m convinced this band was influenced by A-Ha or some such, as this song (She Has Not Time) is very 80s, ballad and all. Slow, a stroll, a song to put you to sleep or to play to your girl. Can’t Stop Now continues the 80s theme of pop songs, but it’s quite good rather than derivative. Sound more like a song, than a half decent track as most over sensitive bands perhaps tend to do. The radio friendly music and lyrics continue a pace, adding a touch of Muse-Lite.

Sunshine is perhaps my least favourite track. Sounding like something Robbie Williams would have done. It doesn’t do justice to the album and is far too sugary sweet for these ears. Still you have to appreciate that the whole album was made without a single guitar being used, which is quite a feat in itself these days. That doesn’t take away from the fact that is quite a weak track, and would fit better in a 70s style bond flick with Roger Moore.

In Untitled I, the band goes for the Radiohead approach, this is the most miserable of the tracks. Ok I know I said it before, but this is it. Sound like Thom Yorke at times vocally, the music is playful but depressing. With lots of mixing, instruments and an assortment of effects, it is one of the best tracks on the album. If the rest of the album was like this, it would be very, very bleak indeed. Still, it adds some much needed variety to an album that does start to sound repetitive by this point.

It’s a helluva lot softer, than what I normally listen to, but I can’t deny enjoying some truly great music and songs

The final track, Bedshaped is ok. It doesn’t really do anything for me, and by this time you get a bit sleepy over the album. It’s actually a decent track, but the first half starts very interestingly, and then starts to fumble. A mix of the first few tracks and the last two were perhaps the direction they should have headed. The middle of the album was pretty disappointing, and of the 12 tracks I would say two-thirds were good, and of that half were not bad.

It’s not an album you can listen to repeatedly. The album seems to rely on Chaplin’s vocals a lot, seeing as they don’t have guitars to rock with, or to provide variety in the album. This is fine, and Chaplin has a good vocal range, but you wish they tried something a little heavier and something a little less safe.

Fair comment to those who say without Coldplay there would be no Keane, and that is true, still I think I prefer Coldplay over Keane, not that Keane are bad, they’re just not outstanding. They do have promise though, and perhaps the next album will be provide a little more noise.

Verdict: A good, if not great, album starting promisingly, failing in the middle, and ending high. A mixed bag, but a band that shows promise