Keane - Hopes And Fears CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

gestures. Tim Rice-Oxley's piano playing, like Chris Martin's, is at once percussive and expansive; drummer Richard Hughes executes the strategic fills with pomp and circumstance; and when singer Tom Chaplin lets loose with his extraordinary tenor, he seems to be channeling Freddie Mercury. There's no letup, from the ascending opener, "Somewhere Only We Know," to the monumental closer, "Bedshaped," on which Rice-Oxley makes up for the absence of guitar with a synth solo of power-ballad-y theatricality. Cynics may find this nonstop ear candy hard to swallow, but what's the point of resisting such delirious beauty when submitting to it feels so good?