Keane: 'Night Train'

Many a band has complained about the endless drudgery of the album-tour-album-tour cycle forced on them by the industry, but precious few have the cojones to do something about it. For his part, every time he gets bored Jack White starts a new band. Marina and the Diamonds has promised to chuck out EPs as and when instead of toiling over a long-form follow-up to her debut. Keane have done their bit by recording this eight-song mini-album during their latest tour, with tracks laid down at various studios in Berlin, Brisbane, Copenhagen, London, LA, Paris and DC. Their last album, Perfect Symmetry, was a surprisingly convincing reinvention for the oft-derided three-piece and Night Train also does its best to prove there's more to the band than soaring choruses and plinky-plonky verses.

Two tracks here feature Somali-Canadian rapper K'Naan - yes, a rapper. Nipping any tittering in the bud, lead single 'Stop For A Minute' is a pretty seamless combination of styles. Like the brassy, soul-inspired 'Looking Back', it manages to avoid any sense of the rap having been grafted on as an afterthought. More importantly, neither track reeks of shameless box-ticking, genre-crossover games, though they don't feel particularly groundbreaking or stunning either. Another guest appearance comes from Japanese singer Tigarah on the intriguingly-titled 'Ishin Denshin (You've Got To Help Yourself)', which takes Keane further in the beepy direction they first showcased on 'Spiralling'. Again, it's perfectly nice, but Tigarah's soft phrasing can't save the song from its slightly dreary choruses.

Elsewhere, Keane attempt to impress on their own, with some hits and misses along the way. Closer 'My Shadow' is possibly the pick of the bunch despite being the most obviously 'Keane' thing here. A mournful mix of prominent bass, downbeat lyrics ("It only takes a spark / To tear the world apart") and, of course, some twiddling piano combine to be so much more than the sum of their parts. 'Back In Time' is a perfectly fine bit of pop with a Killers-y chorus, but the laid-back disco of 'Your Love' falls pretty flat. Much of 'Clear Skies' sounds like the solo breakdown from 'Riders On The Storm', but the payoff doesn't really match the build-up in the same way. Existing fans will love it all though, and, not for the first time, Keane have more than earned some ungrudging respect from the rest of us.