REVIEWSKeane, ‘Night Train’

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• SPIN Rating:7 of 10

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    Spotify

Label: Cherrytree /Interscope

These once-wimpy piano-pop Brits muscled up on 2008's Perfect Symmetry, with producers Jon Brion and Stuart Price tricking out Keane's post-Coldplay musings with fuzzy guitars and booming hip-hop beats. That toughening process continues on this intrepid eight-song mini-album: The dark Depeche Mode synths of "Back in Time" grind against Tom Chaplin's schoolboy vocals, while Somali-Canadian MC K'naan contributes lively guest verses to "Stop for a Minute" and "Looking Back." The latter even samples the theme from Rocky, of all things.

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