Hopes and Fears
Occupation
Tom Chaplin Tim Rice -Oxley Richard David Hughes
Hopes and Fears ( German hopes and fears ) is the debut album of the English band Keane and was released on 10 May 2004. In the UK, the album reached directly in the first week in the charts and took the second place of the most sold albums of the year 2004. In Germany made it the album in the charts on the 30th place.
Background information
During 1999, She Has No Time, the first title was already written for the album, most of the others were only recorded from August to November 2001. 2003 were recorded with On A Day Like Today and We Might As Well Be Strangers, the last two songs.
Musically, the album is based on the British Piano-Rock/Pop. The best known and most successful title is Somewhere Only We Know, which is still used today in many multimedia productions. But the other singles were particularly used in Germany for many TV shows. On the whole album not once is a guitar used, which Keane clearly apart from other bands. As key instruments used Tim Rice -Oxley, the Yamaha CP80 for the significant piano sound and the Clavia Nord Lead 2X as analog synthesizers. He changed the tones often with tremolo and distortion effects.
The Names of the album comes from a line of text of the song Snowed Under, which was released as a B- side to the single Somewhere Only We Know and located on the Japanese as well as at the 2009 published Deluxversion of the album.
Especially in the UK Hopes and Fears was a great success, reaching there so far nine times platinum and won two Brit Awards 2005 in the categories " Best British Album" and " Best British Breakthrough Act". The band managed to, inter alia, with this album next to Bob Marley, U2 and Amy Winehouse in a collection of Iceland Records, which was published for the 50th anniversary of the label. After the end of 2009 about 5.8 million records have been sold worldwide, appeared on November 17, 2009, a deluxe edition of the album with additional B-sides and live recordings.
Reviews
The album received mostly positive reviews, although many critics revealed some negative points. So you missed in plate tests were: "the guitar painful in these purists who solely rely on strumming, drums and occasional gimmicks ", but comes to a positive: "One forgives Keane not only their obvious weaknesses. You learn this even appreciate. Perhaps just as certain something. " CDStarts also addressed the lack of guitars and attracts as many critics comparing to Travis and Coldplay. About the album itself it states as follows: " The melodies are simply beautiful - in the truest sense of the word. Keane come as a songwriter straight to the point, to take or to verfransen in sound effects without any experiments. Everything is clear, but not cheap. Melancholy and pathos happily alongside each other. In short, pop music in its purest form. A sparkling diamond with a nearly perfect finishing touch. "
Title list
Standard Version ( 2004)
Deluxe Edition (2009)
CD 1
CD 2