Strangeland never really lives up to its mysterious title, as there's nothing on it that doesn’t feel willfully nostalgic, but like any good plate of comfort food (for those with larger appetites, there's a 16-track extended version, and a 24-track CD/DVD combo) it satisfies in a way that more adventurous meals never truly can. More contemplative moments, like the lilting "Black Rain," the lovely "Neon River," and the appropriately epic closer "Sea Fog" work just as well, dialing back the cymbal swells in favor of a more measured level of melodrama. It also fails to recapture the melancholy of the first albums. If you have it in your heart to forgive them, this album is the perfect opportunity to get off the night train and hop back on the Keane train. Even Perfect Symmetry was a funnier record, there was more exploration, variety and color. Strangeland is a good but not great album that will be enjoyed by fans of classic Keane, who at this point may reluctantly begin to put down their torches and pitchforks. Bolstered by a pair of stadium-ready singles in "Disconnected" and "Silence by the Night," both of which occur (in classic LP fashion) early on, Strangeland works best when it sticks to the formula, providing a hook, a line, and a sinker before landing the listener with the kind of colossal chorus that results in the frantic rolling up or down of car windows. Strangeland is Keane succumbing to delusions of grandeur, and that is why it is the antithesis to their debut and their second album even if it tries to sound like it. Closer in tone to 2006's Under the Iron Sea, some may find Strangeland's reliable mix of Coldplay, Snow Patrol, and "Sit Down"-era James to be a bit rote, but when it comes to crafting relatively safe, achingly melodic, and terminally sincere adult alternative rock songs, there are few groups as prodigious as the East Sussex quartet. Keane's fourth outing trades in the officious electro-pop flourishes that peppered 2008's Perfect Symmetry for a more familiar approach. Strangeland is a good but not great album that will be enjoyed by fans of classic Keane, who at this point may reluctantly begin to put down their torches and pitchforks.
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