Keane is like an NFL running back who has three and a half great seasons, then gets a knee injury, tries to come back the following year and just doesn’t have the same speed or ability to cut anymore.
He bounces around a couple of teams, clinging to a roster spot as a backup, then ends up out of the league selling mattresses or something. You just hope he was smart with his money during his heyday.
Keane’s first three albums — Hopes and Fears, Under the Iron Sea and Perfect Symmetry — were all excellent. Good sound, great vocals, interesting lyrics. Then they took a break, released a pretty good EP and came back with Strangeland, an album so bland I barely made it through once.
That was 2012, and the band has since gone on hiatus. No word on whether they’ll record together again.
At least we got a few good seasons out of them.
In the river Thames
I dreamed I had nothing at all
Nothing but my own skin
I dreamed I was drifting
On the howling wind
I dreamed I had nothing at all
Nothing but my own skin
Slipped away from your open hand
Into the river
Saw your face looking back at me
I saw my past
And I saw my future
[Chorus]
You take the pieces of the dreams that you have
Cause you don’t like the way they seem to be going
You cut them up and spread them out on the floor
You’re full of hope as you begin rearranging
Put it all back together
But anyway you look at things and try
The lovers are losing
I dreamed I was watching
The young lover’s dance
I reached out to touch your hand
But I was watching from a distance
We cling to love like a skidding car
Clinched to the corner
I try to hold on to what we are
The more I squeeze the quicker we all are
[Chorus]
I dreamed I had nothing at all (nothing but my own skin)
I dreamed I had nothing at all
[Chorus]
You take the pieces of the dreams that you have
Cause you don’t like the way they seem to be going
You cut them up and spread them out on the floor
You’re full of hope as you begin rearranging
Put it all back together
But in the final reckoning
We’re trying
The lovers are losing
Well, unlike the athlete who will always have age curtailing a sustained career, the musician has at least the possibility of doing his best work ever, or at least work as good as early releases, into quite an old age. Somehow, though, I’m not thinking that Keane will be one of those artists.