Keane

When the Brits invaded rock yet again in the 2000s, Keane rose to the occasion—and the top of the charts—with their poignant, piano-fueled ballads and electrifying, often guitar-less anthems. The English rockers even managed to outdo their own heroes, surpassing U2’s The Joshua Tree in U.K. sales with their 2004 debut album, Hopes and Fears. Indeed, Bono and co. were very much an influence from the beginning, when, in 1995, University College London students Tim Rice-Oxley (pianist/bassist/songwriter), Dominic Scott (guitarist), and Richard Hughes (drummer) formed Lotus Eaters, a band that frequently covered artists like U2 and Oasis. Once childhood friend Tom Chaplin stepped in to take over vocals in 1997, the newly named Keane started writing their own Britpop-inspired melodies. When guitarist Scott left the band in 2001, the piano began to shape much of their sound. By 2004’s Hopes and Fears, they were crafting a delicate mix of soaring rock theatrics and heartwarming vulnerability, a blend that hit especially hard on slow-building dramas like “Somewhere Only We Know.” Over the years, they’ve expanded on that foundation, churning out muscular piano-rock scorchers like 2006’s Grammy-nominated “Is It Any Wonder?,” creating moody synth-pop thrillers such as “Spiralling” for 2008’s Perfect Symmetry, and even pulling off a few intriguing collaborations with Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan on 2010’s Night Train. While a lengthy hiatus kept Keane out of the studio for much of the 2010s, they returned reinvigorated with 2019’s Cause and Effect, a highly personal, deeply emotional set of beauty and explosive sound—two qualities that have always defined Keane’s most hard-hitting work.