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As rock goes, Symmetry remains a relatively quiet riot, but in the context of the band itself, it's a welcome revelation.
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Perfect Symmetry bursts out of the gate with a suite of giddy, '80s-inflected Brit pop songs that, surprisingly, suit the band well.
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It is a surprise and a thrill to hear that even as the band enters its "artsy" phase--expanding its instrumental palette to include mewling saws and clattering percussion--the songs remain uniformly excellent from stem to stern.
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Perfect Symmetry is often an exhilarating and unexpected pop record from a band you'd have thought incapable of either, and there's something genuinely life-affirming about that.
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Q MagazineIt's one of the least boring records you'll hear this year. [Nov 2008, p.108]
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On album three, Keane trick out their pretty piano melodies with tasty synths ('The Lovers Are Losing'), booming rap beats ('Spiralling'), and fuzzy new-wave guitars ('You Haven’t Told Me Anything').
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Keane still have a tendency to get mushy and melancholic when the ballads get big (check out the meaning- of-life musings on the synth-whipped title track), but even the mopiest moments leave you in good cheer.
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Often during Perfect Symmetry, listeners of a certain age might find themselves recalling Simple Minds or Tears for Fears. Whether that thought fills you with delight or revulsion rather determines the album's appeal.
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It's ambitious, triumphantly executed stuff--melodically, lyrically, Tim Oxley-Rice is a vastly superior songsmith to Chris Martin--and will doubtless shortly be inescapable. But you can't shake the dispiriting feeling it might have all been expressly commissioned by Dave Cameron for the opening night of London 2012.
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The band's underlying strength remains Chaplin's ability to turn a melodic phrase with grace and dexterity, which fails to lose its vitality no matter the musical context, but Keane's willingness to take these left-hand turns deserves its own share of accolades.
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While this isn't the daring brave leap forward that was whispered about when Spiralling was released, it will no doubt prove another multi-million seller for the trio from Battle.
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That means when Perfect Symmetry is at its best, you’ll think of a-ha, and when it’s at its worst...Go West, anyone? And yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and underneath it all, this is very much a Keane album.
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Unfortunately, Perfect Symmetry is an album characterized by its heavy-handedness, so while it sounds as though the band was aiming for Echo & the Bunnymen, they hit Duran Duran or Simple Minds instead, making for a brand new record that often sounds badly dated.
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Despite its boldness, Perfect Symmetry is as swollen with corny grandeur as a political convention, guided by the delusion that a pompous speech somehow becomes fun if it’s accompanied by a balloon drop.
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MojoThe trio have bounced back from frontman Tim Rice-Oxley's surprise 2006 stinct in rehab by discovering the '80s. And not in a good way. [Nov 2008, p.108]
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Musically, they’ve ripped off swathes of things contemporary and popular to make them ‘hip’, but it just feels like some dodgy old guy at a bus stop telling you he digs Klaxons.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 79 out of 93
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Mixed: 7 out of 93
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Negative: 7 out of 93
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Sep 30, 2010
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May 26, 2018Incredible album. One of the best album of all time. Better than all Coldplay's albums
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Feb 26, 2017