if the sea was made of iron, wouldn't the fish drown?

my lord it's been a long time since i've written. the muse left me, i'm telling you. gone gone gone.

but you know. now is as good a time as ever to start back up again. although anyone who ever read this has long ago vanished, due to extreme lack of updates. let's see if this will get their attention:

"under the iron sea" is the title of keane's sophmore effort, coming out june 20th for us underpriveledged folk in the u.s. the band have described it as a "rock and roll beast" to literally anyone who will listen (literally. in interviews, to people in pubs, to random passers-by, shouting it out of moving cars and trains. it's embarassing). they are touting it as darker, harder, and more ambitious. we'll see.

veteran keane show attendees have already heard lead singer tom chaplin's pleas for incredibly biased opinions on three of the new album's tracks, "nothing in my way," (formerly "nothing in your way") "try again," and "hamburg song."

"nothing in my way," while good, sounds like "somewhere only we know" thrown into the microwave with your lean cuisine macaroni and cheese. it's warmed over and got some new lyrics, but otherwise, nothing we haven't heard before from the kids from battle. we've only heard the live version, so who knows, maybe in the studio they threw in a didgeridoo and some tuvan throat music to beef it up and make it non-"sowk"-like. somehow i doubt it.

"try again" has only been heard by audiences in its most stripped-down state (save for a lovely duet at last year's wireless festival with the omnipresent rufus wainwright), with a very simple keyboard, a shaker, and a tambourine-ish thingie for the beat. chaplin announced it to fans as "...the best thing tim has written..." or something like that. it's not. but it's nice! but it's not the best thing tim's ever written. and not even remotely "beast"-like. it's a "droopy lady music" ballad. and again, we've only heard it in its earliest stages on tour, so mayhaps they beefed it up a bit on the record.

"hamburg song," however, might possibly be the best thing tim has ever written. it's delicate and gorgeous and soaring and lilting and oooooooooh so pretty. it tends to get a bad rap from keane fans, for a reason that i have yet to descern. it's one of those songs that brings the room to a hush, and people stand with their eyes closed, just letting tom chaplin's elastic vocals wash over them. it's like a lullaby. so pretty. not a beast though. my my, no.

billboard got a copy and claims to hear guitar effects. they're wrong: tim has put his piano through some guitar effects pedals. so the piano is going through guitar components, but no guitars show up. there are some strings, apparently.

i've got my fingers crossed for a smokin' ukulele solo. that would rock.

so until june 20th...