Keane is an English piano rock band that formed in Battle, East Sussex in 1995, and took its current name in late 1997. The group comprises composer, bassist, and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley; lead vocalist Tom Chaplin; and drummer Richard Hughes. Their original line-up included founder and guitarist Dominic Scott, who left in 2001.
Keane are known for using a piano as their lead instrument instead of guitars, differentiating them from most rock bands. The inclusion of a distorted piano effect in 2006 and various synthesizers were a common feature in their music that back then combined the piano rock sound used during their first album and the piano rock sound which developed during 2005. For their latest tracks, Keane have used new instrumentation such as violins, saxophone and, once again, acoustic guitar.
Their first two studio albums,
Hopes and Fears and
Under the Iron Sea, achieved success in the United Kingdom upon release and very high sales worldwide: their multi-award-winning debut was the best-selling British album of 2004, and their second sold up to 222,000 copies during its first week on sale in June 2006. In May 2008, both
Hopes and Fears (#13) and
Under the Iron Sea (#8) were voted by readers of
Q magazine within the best British albums ever; Keane, The Beatles, Oasis and Radiohead were the only musical acts having two albums in the top 20.
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