Celebrating the first 10 years of their career, “The Best Of Keane” showcases all the greatest hits and singles from Keane’s commercial breakthrough in 2004 leading up to their latest album, “Strangeland”, released in 2012.
Keane grasped global attention after releasing ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and ‘Everybody’s Changing’ nearly 10 years ago. In between the release of those two fan-favourites and now, the lads have released four acclaimed albums and have tasted chart success, not just in England, but all over the world.
But how many of the band’s singles are “hits” rather than “misses”? Though “The Best Of…” compiles all of Keane’s songs which have hit the charts, not all of them are awfully memorable. In the past, Keane have been criticized for many of there songs sounding somewhat “samey”, constantly following the same “safe formula” that many groups have fallen victim to. Unfortunately, this compilation seems to prove those critics correct. Variety isn’t this album’s forte.
However, it’s not all bad news. Fans of the band will likely enjoy reliving Keane’s classic tracks, as well as the huge amount of content available on the deluxe edition. This includes a second CD which holds a bunch of the band’s B-Side tracks, which you may not have heard before. Though they are nothing to write home about, Keane die-hards will love having an extra 18 songs to add to their collection.
“The Best Of…” also includes 3 previously unreleased songs; ‘Higher Than the Sun’, ‘Won’t Be Broken’ and ‘Russian Farmer’s Song’ (deluxe exclusive). These tunes do a good job in showing how far the band have come, in that they are very comfortable in their style and have truly matured since their formation in 1997.
Unless you go for the deluxe edition, there isn’t an awful lot here that hasn’t been heard before – even for a casual fan.
Keane – Higher Than The Sun on MUZU.TV.
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