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Under the Iron Sea

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Under The Iron Sea is the second album by British rock band Keane, and the follow-up to their album Hopes and Fears. It was released June 12 2006 internationally, excluding Japan (June 7th), Germany, Holland, Mexico, Switzerland (June 9th) and in the United States and Canada where it was released June 20 2006. The band have said that it has a darker, more electronic sound than Hopes and Fears, describing it as a "sinister fairytale-world-gone-wrong" [link].

"Nothing In My Way", "Try Again" and "Hamburg Song" debuted in 2005 during the tour. "Hamburg Song" is an acoustic song, written only for piano and organ, but the album version included an accordion effect. "Is It Any Wonder?", "Atlantic" and "Crystal Ball" were premiered at a secret gig in London on April 5.

The first release was "Atlantic", which was issued as a download-only music video on April 25, featuring a specially extended version of the song incorporating the outro from album track "The Iron Sea". Irvine Welsh, author of the novel Trainspotting, directed the video, which was filmed in black and white on Sussex beach, and did not feature the band. "Is It Any Wonder?" followed as the next single, out May 29, and released on both CD and 7" in the UK. Its video was directed by Kevin Godley, best known for his work on music videos for The Police and Duran Duran in the mid-1980s.

There was also a Bonus DVD released version (also called "Limited or Special Edition") with a book-shaped cover representing a story, with drawings in the inner pages. The DVD includes demo versions for all tracks except "Nothing In My Way", "Hamburg Song" and "Try Again" that are played live.

The title of the album is derived from the lyric "I lost my heart. I buried it too deep under the iron sea," which appears in the eighth song, "Crystal Ball".

This album was accidentally put on sale for a few hours on June 2nd 2006 by Apple Computer's Belgian iTunes Music Store, and while this was widely publicised as a leak of the album, no one on the band's messageboard was able to buy it in this time frame. A US edition of the album eventually leaked in its entirety to file-sharing networks on June 5th 2006.

In its first week on sale in the UK, the album went to #1, selling 222,297 copies according to figures from the Official Chart Company. In the U.S., the album came in at a respectable #4 on the Billboard charts, selling 75,702 units in its first week.

Contents

Track listing

The hand written note by Tim Rice-Oxley, Tom Chaplin, and Richard Hughes
Enlarge
The hand written note by Tim Rice-Oxley, Tom Chaplin, and Richard Hughes

  1. "Atlantic" (4:13)
  2. "Is It Any Wonder?" (3:08)
  3. "Nothing In My Way" (4:02)
  4. "Leaving So Soon?" (3:58)
  5. "A Bad Dream" (5:04)
  6. "Hamburg Song" (4:37)
  7. "Put It Behind You" (3:35)
  8. "The Iron Sea" (2:57)
  9. "Crystal Ball" (3:53)
  10. "Try Again" (4:26)
  11. "Broken Toy" (6:07)
  12. "The Frog Prince" (4:21)
Note: North American editions combine "The Iron Sea" with "Put It Behind You," which is listed at a playtime of 6:33.

Information and meaning of songs

For information about the singles visit:

Nothing In My Way

"Nothing In My Way" was composed in 2004 by Rice-Oxley. It was debuted at a gig at Madrid's Sala Arena on October 12th 2004, and was previously called "Nothing In Your Way". [link] "Is about being in denial". Rice-Oxley explains it's based on the song "Lose Yourself" by Eminem [Podcast 1]

Leaving So Soon?

"Leaving So Soon?" was the last song composed for the album, in 2005. "It's a defense of the three of us in the band" [link]

A Bad Dream

"A Bad Dream" was composed around 2004 and 2005 by Rice-Oxley. As said by Tim, the lyrics talk about a pilot, who's fighting on a war. The song was based on the poem by W.B. Yeats "An Irish Airman Foresses His Death" Rice-Oxley explained this on a podcast: "We wanted to get a balance between a kinda dream sequence. It starts very quietly, and I love the idea of being in a plane, like a Spitfire or something, being so high up in the sky that you can't hear the guns below you and so on. And it's almost got a serene silence which is what this Yeats poem seemed to really express. The song starts very quietly, but it gets huge and angry as it goes on... The big distorted washy piano sound in the middle is a pretty vast sound and it's I guess an attempt to express all that anger bursting out." [Podcast 3]

Put It Behind You

Composed in mid 2004 because of Richard's break-up with his girlfriend. The song was first mentioned on the Strangers DVD by Chaplin. A demo version of this song is included on the Under the Iron Sea DVD. During live performances of this song, the three members of the band sing on the main chorus, contrary to the album version, in which Hughes doesn't sing. "It's about Richard's messy break-up with his girlfriend after seven years"[Podcast 4]

The Iron Sea

It appears as a demo on the Strangers DVD, with Tim playing it at the Helioscentric Studios, East Sussex. "The Iron Sea" was composed in 2004 by Rice-Oxley. On the UK version, "The Iron Sea" is the eight track but in the International version is a hidden song after "Put It Behind You". The outro was also used on the single version of "Atlantic". "It's the key track of the record" [Podcast 4]

Try Again

"Try Again" was composed in early 2005, and first played live two weeks after composed by Rice-Oxley. The song was first played with the electric piano and a tambourine, and was shorter than the studio album. The studio album includes drums and an extended outro, with a guitar synthesizer.
rufus Wainwright was asked by Keane to sing this song along with Chaplin at the Coachella Music Festival in November 29 2005. Chaplin wanted Wainwright to also play the piano but he refused.
Rice-Oxley gives a meaning to "Try Again" on the fifth Keane podcast:
"I always think about it as being a commuter's love song. There's something weird about that feeling of being on a train really really late at night when there's just a handful of you there, and I always wonder what everyone's story is - especially people who've been to work and probably got up at some horrendous hour of the morning, and they're traipsing back to their home somewhere in the suburbs"[link]

Broken Toy

Composed using a Jazz rock style this is Keane's longest song ever recorded, at 6:07 minutes in length. Some fans disliked this song the first time they heard it.[link] "It talks about the relationship between me and Tom"-Tim Rice-Oxley, [Podcast 6]

The Frog Prince

"The Frog Prince" was composed in 2004. The album wasn't so dark at the end. Was first mentioned by Tim on the Strangers DVD. A demo version also features Tim singing on the lead vocals.
Rice-Oxley explains the song on the 6th podcast:
"(...)It was inspired by a conversation that Tom and I were having in a slightly drunken state in a hotel in Toronto, and we were talking about someone in another band who we felt was a really talented songwriter and really intelligent and talented person, but we felt he was busy bad-mouthing us and every other band that was around it seemed. It was very frustrating to see him go from a cool great songwriter in a small indie band, to suddenly becoming this person who's playing the part of the arrogant rock star(...)" [link] Richard gives also a meaning to this on the link above.
Despite several times said by Tim is a song about another singer, some fans believe is actually about Tom Chaplin, lead singer of Keane.

Chart Performances

UK Album Chart
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
Position
1
1
2
4
8

Irish Album Chart
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
Position
1
3
6

Billboard 200
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
Position
4
20
31
Sales
75,702
36,374
22,666
Total
75,702
112,076
134,742

Canadian Album Chart
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
Position
7

Global Chart
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
Position
2
2
4
7
Sales
335,000
261,000
176,000
140,000
Total
335,000
596,000
772,000
912,000

General charts

See also

Trivia

Quotes

External links

Category

 

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