Under the Iron Sea
Art Cover
L’illustration de la pochette de l’album a été réalisée par l’artiste Sanna Annukka Smith.
Keane collaborated with Finnish artist Sanna Annukka, from Brighton, whose work they had admired for some time, to create the artwork for the album cover.
Influenced by Finnish folk art, Sanna’s block-style prints perfectly capture the sinister, allegorical mood of Under The Iron Sea. In fold-out booklet form, this image will be the first part of a much bigger fairytale landscape, full of images which obliquely reflect the themes of the songs. (keanemusic.com)
The newer font was specially designed for Keane (but no specific name for the font was given apart from the « UTIS » fan-name).
International release date : 12 juin 2006
USA/Canada release date : 20 juin 2006
Date de sortie Japon : 7 juin 2006
Notes : The album reached number 1 of UK charts the first week of its release.
« The iron sea », présent sur la version britannique (appelée « édition spéciale ») et sur l’édition deluxe, est en fait caché à la fin de « Put it behind you » sur la version internationale.
Le titre « Let it slide », présent sur le single « Is it any wonder? », est un titre bonus sur la version japonaise.
DELUXE VERSION
Le coffret contient le CD standard et également un DVD :
- Making of de l’album « Under the iron sea » (Documentaire 25 min.)
- Atlantic (petit film)
- Is it any wonder? (Clip)
- Making of du clip « Is it any wonder? » (Documentaire 8 min.)
- Atlantic (Démo – 29 Janvier 2005)
- Is it any wonder? (Démo – 31 mars 2005)
- Nothing in my way (Live – Aragon Theatre, Chicago, 19 May 2005)
- Leaving so soon? (Démo – 29 Octobre 2005)
- A bad dream (Démo – 7 juillet 2005)
- Hamburg song (Live – Aragon Theature, Chicago, 19 May 2005)
- Put it behind you (Démo – 8 janvier 2005)
- The iron sea (Démo aux studios Helioscentric – 9 avril 2005)
- Crystal ball (Démo – 7 juillet 2005)
- Try again (Live – Aragon Theatre, Chicago, 19 May 2005)
- Broken toy (Démo?)
- The frog prince (Démo – 7 juillet 2005)
Notes : Cette édition n’a de limitée que le nom, elle n’est pas numérotée ou en très petit nombre. C’est pour la distinguer de l’édition normale (version internationale) et de l’édition spéciale (version Royaume-Uni).
VERSION AMERIQUE LATINE
Le coffret contient le CD standard et également un DVD contenant les clips suivants :
- Atlantic
- Is it any wonder
- Crystal ball
- Nothing in my way
- A bad dream
- The making of Is it any wonder?
Date de sortie Amérique Latine : 12 avril 2007
UNDER THE IRON SEA – LIVE
Notes : Livre sur Under the iron sea contenant des photos du groupe prises pendant les répétitions avant de partir en tournée ainsi que les paroles manuscrites des chansons de l’album par Tim.
Les photos et la conception du livre ont été réalisées par Alex Lake.
SINGLE – ATLANTIC
Tracklist :
Date de sortie : 26 avril 2006
Notes : Atlantic est un single vidéo seulement, disponible en téléchargement payant.
Une compétition a eu lieu sur le site officiel de Keane, réservée aux Britanniques, et permettait de gagner une boite pour stocker les 45 tours des singles de « Under the iron sea », limitée à 2500 exemplaires, contenant le 45 tours d’Atlantic. La vidéo était aussi disponible dès le 21 avril 2006 sur l’opérateur téléphonique britannique 3 Mobile et à partir du 3 mai sur iTunes.
SINGLE – IS IT ANY WONDER ?
Tracklist :
Release date : 29 mai 2006 (26 mai 2006 aux Pays-Bas, 17 Juillet 2006 en France)
Notes : Les versions cd 2 titres et 45 tours ne comprennent que « Let it slide » en complément de « Is it any wonder? ». Un poster est inclus dans le single vinyl, ce dernier est numéroté.
Le single britannique comportant 3 titres est dans une boite en carton 100% biodégradable. Dans les autres pays, on trouve la version 3 titres dans un boitier crystal fin ou la version 2 titres dans une simple pochette carton, les formats habituels.
Une version acoustique de « Is it any wonder? » était également disponible.
Le single se serait vendu à 23877 copies au Royaume-Uni lors de la première semaine.
Plus haute position dans les classements : 3ème au Royaume-Uni (19ème en téléchargement en France).
SINGLE – CRYSTAL BALL
Tracklist :
- Crystal ball
- Maybe I can change
- The iron sea (Magic shop version)
Date de sortie : 21 août 2006
Notes : Les versions cd 2 titres et 45 tours ne comprennent que « Maybe I can change » en complément de « Crystal ball ».
Plus haute position dans les classements : 20ème au Royaume-Uni
SINGLE – NOTHING IN MY WAY
Tracklist :
Release date : 30 octobre 2006
Notes :
La version 45 tours ne comprend que « Thin air » en complément de « Nothing in my way ».
Le single a aussi été édité sur clé USB, en plus des habituelles version cd et vinyl.
USB Version
Tracklist :
- Nothing in my way
- Nothing in my way (vidéo)
- 3 économisateurs d’écrans (réalisés par Corin Hardy, à qui l’on doit les clips pour « Somewhere only we know » et de « Bedshaped »)
- Un lien vers une page spéciale pour voir une version alternative du clip et un concours pour aller voir le groupe en concert à Berlin le 15 novembre 2006.
Notes : L’édition a été limitée à 1500 exemplaires, et possède du contenu exclusif. Cette version était disponible uniquement dans les magasins HMV britanniques et sur hmv.co.uk.
SINGLE – A BAD DREAM
Tracklist :
- A bad dream
- She sells sanctuary
- A bad dream (Luna-C Hardcore remix)
- A bad dream (live in Berlin)
Release date : 22 janvier 2007
Notes : « She sells sanctuary » est une reprise de The Cult.
La version vinyl ne contient que « She sells sanctuary » en plus de « A bad dream ».
USB Version
Le single est également sorti sur clé USB, comme pour « Nothing in my way » en plus des habituelles version cd et vinyl.
Tracklist :
- A bad dream
- A Bad Dream (Video)
- Enjoy The Silence
- A Bad Dream (Luna-C Alternate Remix)
Notes : L’édition a été limitée à 1500 exemplaires, et possède du contenu exclusif. Cette version est disponible uniquement dans les magasins HMV britanniques et sur hmv.co.uk.
SINGLE – TRY AGAIN
Tracklist : CD1- Try again
- Somewhere only we know (live)
- The frog prince (live)
- Try again (live)
- Try again
- Everybody’s changing (live)
- This is the last time (live)
- A bad dream (live)
- Try again
- Nothing in my way (live)
- Is it any wonder? (live)
- Bedshaped (live)
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UNDER THE IRON SEA (BOÎTE A SINGLES 45T)
- Atlantic
- Is it any wonder?
- Crystall ball
- A bad dream
- Nothing in my way
- The night sky (pour Warchild)
Songs
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I hope all my days I don’t wanna be old and sleep alone I don’t wanna be old and sleep alone And if I need anything at all I need a place I need a place | A PROPOS « Atlantic was the first thing that we recorded for the record, and it was actually gonna be a b-side. It was weird – it was just a very very scrappy demo. To be honest, I don’t think any of us had really thought that it could be a really great song, or a great piece of music or anything; but Richard started playing this weird thing on the drums – we had some drums from the demo and he started playing out-of-time with them, sort of half a beat behind them. And it created this weird, incredible drum pattern which was funky and industrial, and it just brought the whole song to life and it immediately started to sound amazing. It’s a piece of music that I’m really really proud, and I think we’re all really really proud of as a band. It’s a great example of a piece of music that we’ve all contributed to, and it wouldn’t be the song that it is unless we all put something special into it. The reason it’s the first song on the record, is because it’s got such an incredible atmosphere to it, and I guess it’s about having a terror of being alone – it sets the mood of the record really well, both musically and lyrically. » Tim (from Beyond the Iron Sea – Podcast 2, May 22, 2006) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I always thought that I knew Is it any wonder that I’m tired? Sometimes Is it any wonder that I’m tired? Nothing left beside this old cathedral Oh but you try | A PROPOS Tim Rice-Oxley says of this song in Q Magazine October 2007: « It « It’s probably the one song on the record that most expresses our Is It Any Wonder? is probably the most ‘rock’ song that we’ve The song generally is… I guess you could say it’s a very
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes A turning tide And why’d you say A tell-tale sign And why’d you say Well for a lonely soul, you’re having such a nice time For a lonely soul, you’re having such a nice time | A PROPOS « Nothing In My Way came out of listening to a lot of the poppier end of hiphop on the radio, just kinda driving around (I was driving up and down to my parents house a lot as that was the only place I could go to play the piano) and I think particularly the groove of « Lose Yourself » by Eminem got stuck in my head. I think it’s still one of the greatest pop songs of my lifetime, it’s such a fantastic track. And I guess I like the idea of trying to do something similar. I guess it was never gonna sound like Eminem, but the groove of it was basically lifted from that, and the song just came from jamming around on a piano. So I guess as a result of all that, I guess it’s a much funkier and kinda ‘blacker’ song than most Keane songs, and that was something that we really wanted to get into the record generally. We were listening to a lot of classic motown as well, much more driving rhythms and you can hear that in a lot of the songs. So I’m really proud to have a few songs that people can at least nod their heads to! Lyrically Nothing In My Way is I guess about really being in denial – I hate it when people refuse to acknowledge their own feelings and reactions to something, because they see it as being a weakness to say that they’re scared, or upset about something, or whatever. The song’s actually written about some people I know who are married, and their marriage was essentially just bringing a lot of misery to both of them, but for some reason they just refused to acknowledge it. I hate the idea of people being so much in denial that they’re prepared to almost let their lives fall apart rather than acknowledge what’s going on. » – Tim – Podcast 1 (15th May 2006)
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah! You must think I’m a fool Do I seem too eager to please to you now? Now that you’re here You look down on me You’re leaving so soon Ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah! Leaving so soon, soon You’re leaving so soon Ah, ah ah, ah ah, ah! | A PROPOS « Leaving So Soon? was the last song written for the record, and it was pretty much the only song written in the studio. It was one of those songs that felt really good – it’s got a motown-y feel to it I think. It’s a weird one, I guess it’s a kinda defense of the three of us in the band. I always get frustrated that I feel people are judging us too quickly sometimes – not as a band, but as people just cos we’re not brash and wacky and naturally bubbly. It can happen to anyone, people judge you too quickly rather than actually bothering to find out what’s below the surface. For me it’s quite a funny song actually because it’s so sarcastic and bitchy, but it’s quite melodramatic – it’s definitely got a twinkle in its eye! » – Tim – Podcast 1 (15th May 2006) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Why do I have to fly I wake up, it’s a bad dream Where will I meet my fate? I wake up, it’s a bad dream Where do we go? I wake up, it’s a bad dream | A PROPOS « A Bad Dream is the most emotional song on the record. It was based on a poem by W.B.Yeats, called « An Irish Airman Foresees His Death », and I think it also came from visiting lots of battlefields and graveyards and so in France, which sounds very morbid, but that’s the kind of thing I like to do on holiday! I’ve just always been really affected by… I guess still being a relatively young man, I still have a lot of empathy of people of my age and even younger, who are going off to war; and I guess the idea of going off to war has been in the air for the last couple of years, with Afghanistan and Iraq particular. Those seem like very distant things, but I think in Europe in particular the Second World War is still something that still looms quite largely in a lot of people’s minds, and it certainly should do. I’d also been reading a book called « The New Confessions » by William Boyd, in where the protagonist of the book goes up in a hot air balloon to film the front line, and he gets shot down and captured. It just made me think a lot of people when they go off as young men, and when they come back – even if it’s a couple of years later it’s like they’ve become old, and all the things they left behind have changed. And it’s something that you can never ever go back to being young again. And I guess it’s just a very sad song.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. » – Tim – Podcast 3 (30th May 2006)
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I don’t wanna be adored no, don’t wanna be the only one you know I lay myself down Will you see me in the end Fool, I wonder if you know yourself at all I lay myself down Say a word or two to brighten my day To lay yourself down | A PROPOS Tim Rice-Oxley says this song is about his friendship with his bandmate, Keane singer Tom Chaplin. In Q
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes
Times goes by at such a pace You better it put it behind you now All the things you took for granted You better it put it behind you now Don’t care what she said and (Better put it behind you now, better put it behind you now) You better it put it behind you now | A PROPOS Put It Behind You is another early song on the record, from about the same time as Atlantic I think. I think my instincts at the time were going very ‘Strokes-y’ – it’s a very ‘Strokes-y’ sounding song, and we liked the idea of keeping things more raw, a bit crunchier. There’s not very much on there, it’s a pretty simple rock song and I love that about it. It sounds very different from Is It Any Wonder for example – it’s much simpler, just ‘bash it out’ rock song. But it’s still got some really cool sounds in there, and it’s a really kinda funky track and I think it’s also the most motown song. The classic motown influence is probably most visible on that one.Lyrically, it was around that time Richard was going through a messy fall-out from a break-up with a girl that he’d been going out with for seven or eight years… so I guess it was a kinda friendly slap in the face or something! I think Tom and I were both feeling that he was getting really bogged down in this world of regret, and looking backwards all the time, and we just wanted to offer a way of picking him up and moving forward. » – Tim – Podcast 4 (5th June 2006)
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Instrumental, pas de paroles | A PROPOS The track was composed in 2004 by Rice Oxley. On the UK version it is
The song actually sounds like an « iron sea » with its fluid distortion rolling like glass waves on a metal ocean floor.
« I think The Iron Sea is the key track on the record – I guess because it doesn’t have any lyrics, it’s entirely about the atmosphere and the emotion that’s expressed by the music. It’s a very suffocating song, and it sounds very ominous. I find it really thrilling to listen to it, I really love it – it just sounds so oppressive and scary but in a slightly thrilling way(!), and that’s basically what we tried to achieve with the whole record. » – Tim – Podcast 4 (5th June 2006)
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Who is the man I see Oh, crystal ball, crystal ball Lines ever more unclear Oh, crystal ball, crystal ball I don’t where I am Oh, crystal ball, crystal ball | A PROPOS « Our touring schedule over the last couple of years meant that we were on the road all the time, and were never kinda stopping to really appreciate what was going and just spend time having fun – just the three of us functioning as friends and as people, like you normally do. And I think we all started to recede slightly into this little world where we weren’t really communicating or really expressing anything, and we weren’t really feeling anything. And it kind of came to a head when we were in America in June last year and I remember sitting on the bus, and I was trying to write a song and I realised that I didn’t have anything to say at all, and I didn’t have any feelings about anything – good feelings or bad feelings. That was a really scary for me, because I’ve always had lots to say, and lots of opinions whether right or wrong. We then ended up having a massive row about something a couple of days later and it came out of that that we were all feeling this sense of numbness, this feeling of kinda fading away as people. And I just tried to write about that, and it ended up becoming Crystal Ball. It’s quite a chirpy song – it’s a weird one. I’ve always loved bands (The Smiths is an example that spring to mind), bands that can write a song that’s really energised and … ‘pop’ I guess, but is also really meaningful, but also really powerful and sad. And Morrissey is just the king of that, and I think the Pet Shop Boys were another band that did that really well – and those were two of the first bands I ever got into, so I think that’s still a big part of our music; and I guess Crystal Ball is probably the best example of that. » – Tim – Podcast 5 (12th June 2006) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I fell asleep on a late night train Baby I’ll try again, try again What I was isn’t what I am Still I’ll try, try again, try again But I was made the way I am God I wish you could see me now Still I’ll try, try again, try again | A PROPOS « Try Again – that was another song that I actually wrote at home rather than on the bus, when we had a break in touring and I just remember being really pleased with it, because I wrote it in one of those periods when I was convinced I was never going to write a decent song ever again – probably being very melodramatic about the whole thing. But you do get into those sorts of periods of writers block, and Try Again just came out quite easily. And I didn’t really know whether it was any good or not, but I played it to Tom and when we were in Stockholm last year we did a demo of it, and I remember sitting in the control room when Tom was singing it, and just getting absolutely goosebumps from hearing him sing it for the first time. It just transformed the song into this beautiful modern love song, and that was a real moment in the story of the album because it suddenly started to feel like things were coming together, and that we could still create music together in a really exciting way – so it’s one of my favourites just from a personal point of view. Without me really wanting it to, it came out as a very modern … – 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. And it always seems to me, as if youth has started to be replaced by a dreary routine, and with that all the hopes and dreams of being a young person gradually, without even noticing, they start to ebb away; and a love that’s at the start of the marriage or whatever it is, just starts to disappear. And it seems like there’s something seriously fundamentally wrong with the way we conduct our lives in Britain definitely – it’s probably the same all over the world – and it always makes me really sad, and I guess the idea of the song is just as if… when it gets to the middle 8 of the song, it’s as if your eyes opened for a moment and you suddenly realise you’ve waited so much time and want to have one chance kinda grab it back and make up for all that lost time. It’s a really sad song, but it’s one of the few songs on the record that has a sort of glimmer of hope(!). » – Tim – Podcast 5 (12th June 2006)
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I think you know I look out for you I want to stay I look out for you Who says the river can’t leave its waters? I look out for you | A PROPOS Broken Toy I really love, probably because it came together so quickly, and was really easy(!). But that’s definitely a song about … well, it’s particularly a song about the relationship between me and Tom. We’ve known each other our whole lives and we’ve always had a very ‘brotherly’ relationship, and that yields all sorts of great positive things, but it also occasionally tips over into sort of bad things because you know how to cut each other more deeply than anyone else does. It’s just a way of confronting that, I suppose – just the fact that our friendships were changing. I guess it’s a plea to try to cling onto that and not just let it slip away and not do anything about it until it’s too late. It’s a very explicit way of dealing with that, and I think it’s quite a good example of how the album was for us; when you can’t even talk about those things in normal everyday life, it’s quite hard to be singing about them in a song, but I guess it’s just our weird way of dealing with things(!). Yeah – Tom’s singing a song that I’ve written about him. But I think the great thing about the way we make music is that anything that I write is almost reflected in what the other guys feel most of the time, and that’s why things work so well for us creatively. There are lots of songs that I write that the other guys just don’t get – they might mean a lot to me, but unless the song really touches a nerve with all three of us, we won’t do anything with it basically. But yeah, Broken Toy is a really intense one for us. It’s great to be able to sing about those things, and to play that music and feel that you’re somehow dealing with those things on a really primal level. » – Tim – Podcast 6 (19th June 2006) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes
An old fairytale told me Then you’ll shake All promises broken You were our golden child Your prince’s crown Soon, someone will put a spell on you Your prince’s crown | A PROPOS
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes The same, always the same It’s time to draw the line Say, what’s that you say? It’s time to draw the line |
A PROPOS |
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Time to leave this town He used to be a lovely boy Turn away and turn ahead He used to be a lovely boy Find a place where you can hide He used to be a lovely boy |
A PROPOS |
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Now, will it ever be the same again? I know how I let you down Soon, I’m gonna be an older man I know how I let you down Oh why can’t we go back again? I know how I let you down But I’ve tired you out with the things I do |
A PROPOS |
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I can’t keep up Dark times and strange places where Trust me, I want you Dark times and strange places where Dark times and strange places where |
A PROPOS |
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Instrumental, pas de paroles |
A PROPOS |