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"British emotive-pop trio Keane will finally release their sophomore album, Under the Iron Sea, June 20th. The outfit fronted by the angelic-piped vocalist Tom Chaplin, began work on their latest effort while promoting their 2004 debut, Hopes and Fears. Keane&amp;apos;s songwriter, pianist Tim Rice-Oxley, who typically writes in romantic isolation, found ways to compose on the road. &amp;quot;I love to write songs on a piano in a little house in the middle of nowhere in the middle of night with a bottle of wine,&amp;quot; says Rice-Oxley. &amp;quot;But when you&amp;apos;re moving from one place to another, you don&amp;apos;t have that luxury. So I had to learn to adjust to writing songs in the back of the bus. That was difficult -- but it all came together in the end. The other guys in the band were really helpful. They sensed I was feeling a lot of pressure and tried to take the heat off me.&amp;quot; Left to do his own thing while the rest of the band promoted Hopes, Rice-Oxley found his mind drifting to surprisingly somber, political themes. While their debut featured the soaring, piano-driven ballad &amp;quot;Somewhere Only We Know,&amp;quot; the new effort&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Strokes-y&amp;quot; first single, &amp;quot;Is It Any Wonder,&amp;quot; deals with weightier stuff, inspired in part by England&amp;apos;s involvement in the war in Iraq. &amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s probably the one song on the record that most expresses our dismay and confusion about what it means to be a British citizen, in terms of what our society&amp;apos;s contributing to the world at large,&amp;quot; Rice-Oxley explains. &amp;quot;It&amp;apos;s very hard to make sense of why Britain feels it needs to sign up with George Bush&amp;apos;s attacks on Iraq and the whole Afghanistan thing. It feels like there&amp;apos;s a whole lot of trouble brewing up over Iran, and you just don&amp;apos;t know where it&amp;apos;s going to end. On a personal level, for people of our age, it&amp;apos;s really unsettling.&amp;quot; Beyond the lyrical content, Keane wanted to push the album&amp;apos;s formal structure, spurred on by rock&amp;apos;s favorite godfather, Bono. Not long after settling into a recording studio last fall, U2 asked them to open for their shows at New York&amp;apos;s Madison Square Garden. While hanging backstage with the legends, drummer Richard Hughes says Bono gave his band some great advice. &amp;quot;We were talking about making good albums, and he was saying that he thinks that the order of songs and the atmosphere that that creates is undervalued but incredibly important,&amp;quot; Hughes explains. &amp;quot;With that in mind, we did work very hard trying out various track listings and orders of the songs, to get it right.&amp;quot; Now that the album has taken shape, Rice-Oxley believes that fans of the group&amp;apos;s debut should find Under the Iron Sea a provocative move in another direction. &amp;quot;It does sound really different. We made a point of changing things up,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;We grew up listening to bands like Depeche Mode, the Beatles and the Smiths -- people who were always trying to do new things with the set-up they had. We grew up thinking that was what a band was supposed to do.&amp;quot; Keane are planning to support the release with a handful of intimate gigs in the U.S., with specific dates to be announced shortly. &amp;quot;We&amp;apos;ve got a whole bunch of new songs that really mean a hell of a lot to us,&amp;quot; says Rice-Oxley. &amp;quot;And I think, this time, we&amp;apos;re going to have a lot more fun.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/keane-tackle-the-war-on-iron-sea-20060425>