Today marks the first day of the new era - the first glimpse of Keane's new direction, with the release of Spiralling for free through the official website for a week. And boy, is it a change!
But don't think I mean that in a bad way... quite the opposite in fact! Since getting hold of the track early this afternoon, I must've listened to it repeatedly about 25 times (hey, I never said I wasn't obsessed!) but I can honestly say it wasn't because I needed it to grow on me over repeated listening. Right from the off, it had me hooked... a great guitar riff through it, with a lovely piano counter-riff in the verses... plus the "Woooo!" multi-tracked vocals. For me, this is a bold new direction to push in, but a very good one... I'm waiting with interest to see what the general feeling will be on it. Its going to be divisive for sure - probably even more so than Under The Iron Sea was for some people. Interesting times ahead!
The spectre of the 80's looms large in the track (and I suspect, the album as a whole), but fortunately they have managed to pull it off without it just becoming a piece of throwaway nonsense. There's a lot of Bowie and Talking Heads influence there, but there's still that special something that is distinctively Keane. Tom's vocals are an obvious factor (I particularly enjoyed the speaking section, even if its not a rant as I would think of it!) and he gives a good performance on this song. Some excellent drumming and percussion work from Richard there too. I've waffled on about it a little on the forthcoming episode of Beyond The Iron Sea, but I'm wondering whether its Tim that is playing the lead guitar riff... guess we'll just need to wait to find out!
I was pleased to hear that when chopped into small bits and EQ'd, the old VCS3 ear-bleeder synth can actually produce the goods (It does the little screechy bits at the start of the verses after the piano riff starts, as well as during the speaking section)! Why not re-acquaint yourself with that wondrous moment from Berlin, when they were trying to tame it into producing something vaguely musical over the song:
Phew - at least something good came from that piece of torture!
The final thing to say about it though is that, to my ears, it really has a sense of fun, of not taking itself too seriously. It manages that old trick of marrying serious lyrics to a cheesy, bouncy music and it works brilliantly (for me, at least!). It made me realise that a lot of what Tim had said to me during our lengthy chat a few weeks back is definitely the case - you can really hear the fun and enjoyment of actually making the song coming through, its not uptight and angst-ridden... its free and easy and all the better for it!
If the rest of the album can impart a similar level of fun and feeling, then I think we're in for a real treat. Basically, as soon as the track starts and that big riff kicks in, I can't help but smile - and that can only be a good thing!