I recently caught Keane opening for U2 in New York at the garden. I'd bought their album a year previous and was curious to see them live.

While I was glad I bought this album (if only to relive the Victoria's Secret Commercial in my head), and got to know this band, I wasn't totally sold on them as of yet. I was looking forward to seeing them live as I was hoping they would add something that I felt the CD experience was lacking.

The album opens strongly with "Somewhere Only We Know", which has all the marks of a one hit wonder. It's catchy, cathartic, pulsing, and personal, and good luck to those of you who try to stop singing the melody within a week (it took me almost a month).

The album can't hold the interest though. Lead singer Tom Chaplin has a good lulling voice, and with Tim Rice-Oxley's ethereal keyboards and Richard Hughes' remarkably understated percussion, for the first three tracks it's comfortable and slightly hypnotic, but after "We Might As Well Be Strangers", monotony sets it, and there's nothing left to discover on the album.

It's also extremely limiting, as far as I'm concerned, to be a band with only keyboards and a drum kit (with the occasional electric bass splicing). The smaller the ensemble, the more exponential your songwriting and vocal abilities need to be, and I honestly don't know any trio since The Police that was able to pull that off (and even the royal Police had the occasional backup singers and sax players joining in).

Which is not to say that the rest of the songs on this record aren't worth listening to. I merely suggest you don['t do it all in one sitting, as you won't remember one track past the next. The sound of each song is too similar to the next, rendering them all powerless and forgettable. You can do consistent, while not lose your audience, but these guys haven't figured out how to do that yet.