Tom Chaplin

Keane Perfect Symmetry (Interscope) ESSENTIAL "Playing Along" Keane's third album opens with a group of excited voices, somewhere between gasping and celebratory, expelling a tuneful "ooooh!" Fans of the ceaselessly exuberant Brit-pop trio will find themselves doing the same as the album progresses. It is a surprise and a thrill to hear that even as the band enters its "artsy" phase - expanding its instrumental palette to include mewling saws and clattering percussion - the songs remain uniformly excellent from stem to stern.

► Thursday is March 8, the 68th day of 2012. There are 298 days left in the year. ► Today's birthdays: Actress Sue Ane Langdon is 76. Baseball player-turned-author Jim Bouton is 73. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 68. Musician-actor-director Micky Dolenz is 67. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 66. Pop singer Peggy March is 64. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 59. Singer Gary Numan is 54. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 53. Actor Aidan Quinn is...

► Thursday is March 8, the 68th day of 2012. There are 298 days left in the year. ► Today's birthdays: Actress Sue Ane Langdon is 76. Baseball player-turned-author Jim Bouton is 73. Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager is 68. Musician-actor-director Micky Dolenz is 67. Singer-musician Randy Meisner is 66. Pop singer Peggy March is 64. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice is 59. Singer Gary Numan is 54. NBC News anchor Lester Holt is 53. Actor Aidan Quinn is...

With his choirboy face and infectious grin, Tom Chaplin probably got away with murder as a kid. As the indefatigable leader of Britpop band Keane, Chaplin expertly combines those two assets with a voice spun from pure silk and yearning. If you know the words to a Keane song, as many at the Bank of America Pavilion did Thursday night, resistance to singing along is apparently futile. Tune after hummable tune - "Everybody's Changing," "This Is the Last Time," "Is it Any Wonder?" - was built on the sturdy back of songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley's rollicking piano lines, drummer Richard Hughes's rock-steady...

With his choirboy face and infectious grin, Tom Chaplin probably got away with murder as a kid. As the indefatigable leader of Britpop band Keane, Chaplin expertly combines those two assets with a voice spun from pure silk and yearning. If you know the words to a Keane song, as many at the Bank of America Pavilion did Thursday night, resistance to singing along is apparently futile. Tune after hummable tune - "Everybody's Changing," "This Is the Last Time," "Is it Any Wonder?" - was built on the sturdy back of songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley's rollicking piano lines, drummer Richard Hughes's rock-steady...

Let's pretend you're a genial pop band that's relentlessly compared with another popular band that just happens to be on hiatus. You both play cotton-candy melodies driven by a piano. Both of your sensitive lead singers tap their falsettos to reduce dreamy-eyed teenage girls to sighing messes. And (bonus!) you're both from the UK. Uh-oh. The band you've been emulating has now reemerged to claim its heavyweight title, with a mega-selling album and sold-out shows. That's the predicament facing Keane, whose sophomore album, "Under the Iron Sea," is out today on...

After a cursory listen to Keane's debut, "Hopes and Fears," it takes a mighty effort to shrug off comparisons to Coldplay. Both bands are British, both peddle piano-driven pop, and both feature a lead singer who slips into falsetto like Frankie Valli on a good night in Vegas. But upon closer review, that's where the similarities stop, as the band proved Wednesday night at the Paradise with a set of sparkly pop gems. Keane's album has been out in the United States for a mere month, but already the lads from Sussex have amassed a curious mix of fans.

In an era when commercial radio is as fragmented as plates at the conclusion of a Greek wedding, a band like Keane is a minor miracle. As evidenced by their Orpheum show last night, the British trio has the power to bring together disparate generations that generally can't even discuss the same genres of music, let alone listen to the same bands. But there it was for all to see. A sold-out show with more than 2,500 Keane fans consisting of mothers with their grammar-school-age sons, 20-something daughters with 50-something fathers, and the requisite college students and...

It probably wasn't a coincidence that Keane's first vocal number Friday night at the Bank of America Pavilion was "Put It Behind You . " Last year the British trio canceled its entire summer tour, including a gig at this venue, when lead singer Tom Chaplin decided to go into rehab. Newly svelte and ecstatically sweaty on this uncharacteristically muggy night, Chaplin and his bandmates -- keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley and drummer Richard Hughes -- were clearly thrilled to be putting that past to rest and looking forward.

Keane At: Axis, Saturday Keane nearly became a rock 'n' roll cliché last year. After putting out a massively successful debut album, 2004's "Hopes and Fears ," the British band was swept into the fast lane and promptly began to disintegrate. They held it together, just barely, and the trio's implosion is documented on Keane's new album, "Under the Iron Sea . " So when singer Tom Chaplin opened Keane's show at Axis on Saturday belting the chorus of "Put It Behind You " not to the audience but sideways, while lunging at his childhood friend and keyboardist Tim...

Keane Perfect Symmetry (Interscope) ESSENTIAL "Playing Along" Keane's third album opens with a group of excited voices, somewhere between gasping and celebratory, expelling a tuneful "ooooh!" Fans of the ceaselessly exuberant Brit-pop trio will find themselves doing the same as the album progresses. It is a surprise and a thrill to hear that even as the band enters its "artsy" phase - expanding its instrumental palette to include mewling saws and clattering percussion - the songs remain uniformly excellent from stem to stern.

It probably wasn't a coincidence that Keane's first vocal number Friday night at the Bank of America Pavilion was "Put It Behind You . " Last year the British trio canceled its entire summer tour, including a gig at this venue, when lead singer Tom Chaplin decided to go into rehab. Newly svelte and ecstatically sweaty on this uncharacteristically muggy night, Chaplin and his bandmates -- keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley and drummer Richard Hughes -- were clearly thrilled to be putting that past to rest and looking forward.

Keane At: Axis, Saturday Keane nearly became a rock 'n' roll cliché last year. After putting out a massively successful debut album, 2004's "Hopes and Fears ," the British band was swept into the fast lane and promptly began to disintegrate. They held it together, just barely, and the trio's implosion is documented on Keane's new album, "Under the Iron Sea . " So when singer Tom Chaplin opened Keane's show at Axis on Saturday belting the chorus of "Put It Behind You " not to the audience but sideways, while lunging at his childhood friend and keyboardist Tim...

Let's pretend you're a genial pop band that's relentlessly compared with another popular band that just happens to be on hiatus. You both play cotton-candy melodies driven by a piano. Both of your sensitive lead singers tap their falsettos to reduce dreamy-eyed teenage girls to sighing messes. And (bonus!) you're both from the UK. Uh-oh. The band you've been emulating has now reemerged to claim its heavyweight title, with a mega-selling album and sold-out shows. That's the predicament facing Keane, whose sophomore album, "Under the Iron Sea," is out today on...

In an era when commercial radio is as fragmented as plates at the conclusion of a Greek wedding, a band like Keane is a minor miracle. As evidenced by their Orpheum show last night, the British trio has the power to bring together disparate generations that generally can't even discuss the same genres of music, let alone listen to the same bands. But there it was for all to see. A sold-out show with more than 2,500 Keane fans consisting of mothers with their grammar-school-age sons, 20-something daughters with 50-something fathers, and the requisite college students...

After a cursory listen to Keane's debut, "Hopes and Fears," it takes a mighty effort to shrug off comparisons to Coldplay. Both bands are British, both peddle piano-driven pop, and both feature a lead singer who slips into falsetto like Frankie Valli on a good night in Vegas. But upon closer review, that's where the similarities stop, as the band proved Wednesday night at the Paradise with a set of sparkly pop gems. Keane's album has been out in the United States for a mere month, but already the lads from Sussex have amassed a curious mix of fans.

In an arid world of snark, Keane is like an oasis of earnestness. Four albums deep, the bright Brit pop band behind hits like "Somewhere Only We Know" and "Is It Any Wonder?" continues to impress with its ability to convey a good-natured sense of optimism without tipping too far into maudlin territory. The quartet — and its chief songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley — wisely leavens the album's fist-pumping anthems ("Silenced by the Night," "On the Road") and gentle paeans of reassurance ("Watch How You Go," "You Are Young")