RELEASED: 10 May 2004 "Hopes And Fears": Keane's debut album, the second-highest selling album of 2004 in the UK and my personal favourite record from that year too. Keane's brand of vanilla piano pop was mostly absent from the pop landscape in 2004 and they deftly applied it to everything - from a sad lament for lost love, to mid-tempo resistance to change and upbeat optimism for things to come. Rarely was an album more aptly titled. Its first two singles had false starts in 2003, so the official 1st single was "Somewhere Only We Know" which reversed Keane's fortunes and hit #3 in February '04. That prompted a new release of "Everybody's Changing" a week prior to the album's launch; this time it went to #4. "Hopes And Fears" was an immediate success and "Bedshaped" became its third consecutive top 10 single in August. "This Is The Last Time" was also newly released, reaching #18 in late-November, while "Bend And Break" was the final single, released only to parts of Europe in July '05. Not a single track even comes close to 'filler' status. Even the singles' b-side tracks - 9 of them in total - were as good as or better than the 12 songs that eventually made it onto the album's tracklist. And ten years later? It reminds me of the year I lived and worked in the UK. Walking in the freezing rain from work to my warm flat, taking those first furtive steps in my relationship with "Hopes And Fears", never daring to dream that the love affair might still be going strong a decade later. When I listened to it just now, every track conjured a memory, a time, a place, a face. Hearing one song would remind me of another, which I'd excitedly jump to before coming back to the other one, because I can't leave anything from "Hopes And Fears" unfinished. It's just disrespectful. So yeah, I guess I still kinda like it...
I'm just a guy who loves words. I discover vast tracts of uncharted enjoyment by chucking words together and coming up with stuff that talks about the things I enjoy and love most. I'm also a massive listaholic, so I'm probably talking about a list, looking at a list or banging away at another What Culture list as you read this. My tone's pretty relaxed and conversational, with a liberal sprinkling of sparkling wit, wilting sarcasm and occasional faux-condescension - with tongue almost always firmly planted in cheek.
