New sound for ballad king

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From the start, there was something a little different about the group. With a leaner, more chiselled look, Chaplin's face has lost its cherubic immaturity, giving him an altogether more manly aura. If Tony Soprano had been in the crowd, he might have remarked that the kid had grown himself a pair of balls - a process that's mirrored by the tougher, more sophisticated sound of their forthcoming album, Under the Iron Sea.

Leaving So Soon? set the tone. Clearly aimed at a fickle exgirlfriend, the song's lyrics were more biting and bitter than previous Keane work, with a quick tempo and a hard, rocky edge created by pianist Tim Rice-Oxley's new technique of feeding the keyboard through the type of effects pedal normally used on an electric guitar.

Clearly excited about their new material, after working in crowdpleasing favourites like Everybody's Changing and Somewhere Only We Know, Keane got even angrier with their new single, Is It Any Wonder? Exploring hitherto uncharted material lyrically and musically, the track was a passionate and personal rant on the subject of war, whose beefy bass and fast-paced drumming worked well.

As ever, Chaplin's singing was note-perfect and powerful, although their technical excellence on stage - sometimes almost indistinguishable from their sound on CD - may be part of the reason why Keane never seem to engage fully with their audience. A positive, but less-than-ecstatic response to the album tracks suggested that the new world of Keane may take a while for their ballad-loving fans to appreciate, but it may well earn them some new ones.

Keane