Perfect Symmetry
Art Cover
« The basic pattern is a combination of ideas - namely the decidedly imperfect symmetry that's one of the main themes of the album, and the design concepts of the Bauhaus movement that we fell in love with while we were recording in Berlin. Looking through the gaps in the pattern you can see glimpses of sculptures of us specially made by the brilliant Korean artist Osang Gwon. » (Tim)
- Spiralling
- The lovers are losing
- Better than this
- You haven’t told me anything
- Perfect symmetry
- You don’t see me
- Again and again
- Playing along
- Pretend that you’re alone
- Black burning heart
- Love is the end
International release date : 13 octobre 2008 (10 octobre en Belgique et Suisse, 17 novembre en France)
USA/Canada release date : 14th October 2008
Notes : The album reached number 1 of UK charts the first week of its release.
DELUXE VERSION
Le coffret contient le CD standard et également un DVD :- Documentaire sur le making of de Perfect Symmetry
- Démos des chansons
- Commentaire piste par piste
VERSION JAPONAISE
Tracklist : Inchangée
+ Bonus tracks :
12. My Shadow
13.Time To Go
14. The Lovers Are Losing (CSS Remix)
15.Spiralling (Mad Spirals Mix)
16.Perfect Symmetry (Frankmusik Remix)
Notes : Les fans basés au Royaume-Uni ont eut la possibilité de demander gratuitement, dans la limite des stocks disponibles (2000 boîtes numérotées), une boite pour ranger les singles vinyles (au format 45 tours) de Perfect symmetry. Le single inédit Spiralling était inclus.
SINGLE – SPIRALLING
Tracklist :
- Spiralling
- Spiralling (Diplo vs Keane Mad Spirals Mix) (Version US uniquement)
Release date : 4 août 2008
Notes : Ce n’est pas un « single » à proprement parler, mais un extrait de l’album qui était disponible en téléchargement sur le site officiel de Keane. La version vinyle (45T) du single est sorti uniquement au Royaume-Uni et aux Etats-Unis, et était disponible avec la boîte à singles (45T) « Perfect symmetry » / Le titre a remporté la récompense de la « Chanson de l’Année » aux Q Magazine Awards en Octobre 2008.
SINGLE – THE LOVERS ARE LOSING
Tracklist :
- The lovers are losing
- Time to go
Release date : 20 octobre 2008
Notes : le 45 tours contient les même chansons.
Le single devait à l’origine contenir aussi la chanson « Staring at the ceiling » qui est finalement apparue en b-side du single « Perfect symmetry ».
Version Maxi en téléchargement (uniquement)
Tracklist :
- The lovers are losing (live at the Forum)
- The lovers are losing (CSS remix)
- The lovers are losing (démo)
Notes : Uniquement disponible en téléchargement sur la boutique de Keane.
Le remix par CSS a été offert par le magazine en ligne Popjustice sur leur site au moment de sa sortie.
SINGLE – PERFECT SYMMETRY
Tracklist :
- Perfect symmetry
- Staring at the ceiling
Date de sortie : 29 décembre 2008
SINGLE – BETTER THAN THIS
Tracklist :
- Better than this
- Better than this (Stuart Price remix)
Release date : 16 mars 2009
Notes : Ce single est sorti uniquement en version vinyle (45T) au Royaume-Uni, et contenait une paire de lunettes 3D anaglyphes permettant de voir le premier webcast 3D au monde qui a eu lieu sur keanemusic.com le 1er avril 2009.
PERFECT SYMMETRY (BOÎTE A SINGLES 45T)
- Spiralling
- The lovers are losing
- Perfect symmetry
- Better than this
Songs
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I’m waiting for my moment to come Because now I only see my dreams in everything I touch Now we’re tumbling down I fashioned you from jewels and stone But every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers Now we’re tumbling down Did you want to be a winner? I never saw the light When we fall in love | A PROPOS Tim described it as « an excessive ’80s groove » which makes him « want to wear shoulder pads! » (Q magazine, September 2008) Tom described the song as « a train of thought about human endeavor, built on an outrageous groove. » This song’s lyrics were influenced by Book X of Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses, which tells of the Cypriot sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with a statue he has made. The song was also said to be inspired by wrestling legend Ric Flair who Tom described as a personal hero for his try hard mentality in the ring. His trademark « woo » inspired the song.
This was the first song off the album that Keane released, because they felt that it was really important song in terms of the way they made the record and the spirit of the making of the record. It’s a song that really defined the whole creative process for them and opened them up to a whole new way of working. « We love what we’ve achieved with it sonically and lyrically it is definitely is one of the songs on the album that is about the gap between what we dream of being as people and what we actually achieve and its quite unusual for us, its quite a train of thought type song lyrically. We’re really really proud of it and very pleased to get it out there. » (Tim, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I dreamed I was drowning in the River Thames I dreamed I was drifting on the howling wind Slipped away from your open hands You take the pieces of the dreams that you have I dreamed I was watching the young lovers dance We cling to love like a skidding car You take the pieces of the dreams that you have I dreamed I had nothing at all You take the pieces of the dreams that you have You take the pieces of the dreams that you have | A PROPOS « The Lovers Are Losing was a very, very important song for us in making the record – it was written in Berlin and so it, it kind of, I suppose was one of the peaks of creativity in Berlin, and it was, you know, shows the way that city inspired us when making the record. You often hear this very simple, boiled down version of what people are, divided into lovers and haters. You hear that in songs from everyone from Michael Jackson to Kanye West and I like the idea of being honest with ourselves, at this moment in time the lovers are definitely in real trouble. And I hope the song serves as a rallying call to all of us who aren’t warmongers and all have a romantic dream of what we could be as a human race. » (Tim, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Is this what you meant? You can do so much better than this I’ve been checking my sums You can hang your hopes on the medicine Get a grip on yourself Because the photographs show the wrong man And everyone will be the same It’s better than this | A PROPOS « Better Than This is a good example of optimism among the darkness. We can do better. Spend your life doing something of real worth rather than chasing the dream of celebrity. » (Tim, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) This song concerns the cult of celebrity. « I love Better Than This. Sonically it’s a big departure, but lyrically, being about the state of ‘celebrity culture’… people see it as such an important thing and pin so much hope on it. Certainly, in my opinion, the fame and celebrity side of things is something I find hard to reconcile. I’d much rather it was just about the music; the reason we got into the band in the first place. It wasn’t to get rich or become famous or to get girls – it was to be out there singing. That magic connection between you and a crowd of people who have turned up to pour everything out, like you have… that coming together is the biggest buzz in my life. » (Tom on their record label’s website) This is one of Tom’s favorite songs on the album, « partly because it was such a challenge to sing it. « I remember when Tim premiered the demo, my immediate thoughts were, how am I going to get my head around this and sing this song. It’s a worthwhile challenge and such a powerful song. » « It’s very much a song of the times, it’s a song about celebrity culture and the way people react to fame and how important that is – I think we’ve discovered as a band, and as myself, the fame part of things is such a minor part of what we do. And it always seemed like this amazing prize we were going to have when we got successful as a struggling band. But actually as it turns out it was something that I was quite turned off by and found it quite difficult to reconcile and so for us, the notion of people wanting to be famous for the sake of it is very strange. So I think that song questions why you would want to do that, and again I think its another song about, it has a positive edge, a sympathetic edge to it – why don’t you down all that crap and do something that is ultimately positive. Change things for the better. » (Tom, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD)
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes In a pearl grey room one afternoon You take a beautiful thing But you haven’t told me anything Everything I love is stuck in the mud So same time next week But you haven’t told me anything I feel for you, I really do Because you haven’t told me anything No you haven’t told me anything | A PROPOS This was one of two songs on Perfect Symmetry that referred to that difficult period when Tom left the tour in Japan and booked into rehab : « There are only a couple of songs that refer specifically to that time – Again and again, and You Haven’t Told Me Anything are the two that spring to mind, although they both deal with the topic from a slightly unusual point of view. Other than that, I kind of wanted to move on from the whole subject, so it doesn’t really feature too heavily on the album. The whole episode ended well, and by hook or by crook we found our way back to music, which has always had a magical power to heal the deepest of wounds. In a way the fact that the album makes very little reference to that time is the clearest reflection of the fact that we’ve made it through those hard times and are in a much more creative and exciting place. (Tim, Keaneshine) « You Haven’t Told Me Anything is another unusual song for us sonically, its much more beat driven I suppose. And it was one of the first songs we worked on. We worked on it a lot with Jon Brion, an American producer, who again, that was a really pivotal moment in the making of the record, he persuaded us to really open our minds and stop censoring ourselves before actually trying out ideas, which is a very easy trap fall into. » (Tim, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I shake through the wreckage for signs of life I wish I could make sense of what we do Who are you, what are you living for This life, is lived in perfect symmetry Read page after page of analysis Who are you, what are you fighting for What I do, that will be done to me And maybe you find, life is unkind Oh boy you ought to leave this town Spineless dreamers, hide in churches Wrap yourself around me As the needle, slips into the run out groove I dream in emails, worn out phrases Spineless dreamers, hide in churches | A PROPOS « It’s a sprawling epic with a hint of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody « It’s about the extremes of the human condition. The way that people have this capacity for real greatness and achievement, yet also this ability to sabotage and destroy everything. I think that this album explores all of those themes – terrorism, people’s love of power, celebrity culture, society’s funny traditions and foibles. » (Tim, The Sun) This song socks it to the jihadists, who believe it is their religious This song discusses the futile Perfect symmetry for me was always going to be right from the
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I’m waiting for my moment to come Because now I only see my dreams in everything I touch Now we’re tumbling down I fashioned you from jewels and stone But every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers Now we’re tumbling down Did you want to be a winner? I never saw the light When we fall in love | A PROPOS This song concerns the feeling of being on the outside looking in, while everyone else passes you by. This song stands alone in some ways on the album as it’s a bit more delicate than the others. He added: « I think I have expressed something that has probably been something I’ve been hung up on my whole life which is a sense of being outside of things all the time, and outside of whatever’s happening. I feel like we’ve absolutely made that tangible in the song, and I’m very pleased about that. » (Tim,Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I’m waiting for my moment to come Because now I only see my dreams in everything I touch Now we’re tumbling down I fashioned you from jewels and stone But every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers Now we’re tumbling down Did you want to be a winner? I never saw the light When we fall in love | A PROPOS « We were working on the middle eight, a small section of the song and I think we had, Tim had just bought a new keyboard and had an idea of getting a sound from that to put a riff in the middle of the song – it was this beautiful riff that ended up being the thing that the whole song was built about. and that point for me was when that song, we’d been struggling with that song, and that was the moment I felt we’d brought that song into this album cause its quite an old style Keane song in a way. But its been given a really modern twist and that was just through experimentation which is what we were trying to do with everything on this record. » (Richard,Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I’m waiting for my moment to come Because now I only see my dreams in everything I touch Now we’re tumbling down I fashioned you from jewels and stone But every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers Now we’re tumbling down Did you want to be a winner? I never saw the light When we fall in love | A PROPOS Tim wrote this song, along with several others during the winter of 2007-08. The song grabbed me as « there is all this distress and pain is going on in the world and yet we have the luxury of burying our heads. As the song says: turn up the song on the jukebox or whatever it is and that ability to distract ourselves and drown things out from our minds and so for me it felt like an incredibly pertinent song, a young westerner. And I love it sonically as well. Its just got a lovely, dreamy atmosphere and that was the key when it came to recording this dreaminess into it. And then a great, huge rock out section and we’re really looking forward to playing that one live as well. » (Tom, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I’m waiting for my moment to come Because now I only see my dreams in everything I touch Now we’re tumbling down I fashioned you from jewels and stone But every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers Now we’re tumbling down Did you want to be a winner? I never saw the light When we fall in love | A PROPOS « Pretend You’re Alone was written really late on. It’s got quite a sense of humor, but its still bleak in a way. Again I think it’s a very human song and very sort of ambitious thing to write about – but it’s a really nice idea to write about – what would you do if everything was gone and it was just you. I think that’s a really cool idea and I always imagined one of those movies where everything is gone, and its Will Smith or something or someone is left on their own. What would he do? Lots of CGI probably, but anyway. » (Richard, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I’m waiting for my moment to come Because now I only see my dreams in everything I touch Now we’re tumbling down I fashioned you from jewels and stone But every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers Now we’re tumbling down Did you want to be a winner? I never saw the light When we fall in love | A PROPOS This song was written pretty quickly. He added: « I remember going to a studio in Detroit to do the demo of that one and realizing I hadn’t written a middle section for it. So I just bodged something together for the sake of the demo. When I listened to it the next day I thought it was the best bit, and still do! » (Tim Rice-Oxley, Keaneshine) « Black Burning Heart was one of the first songs that Tim wrote that made it onto the record, quite an early song for this album and its got this really cool, driving bass line which we just sort of got together while we were doing our early rehearsals for the record. And so I was always really excited about it – from a rhythm section point of view its really funky and quite different for Keane even though it just drives forward and has an amazing momentum as a song, its incredibly musical and as well as being a very cool song lyrically. » (Richard,Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes I’m waiting for my moment to come Because now I only see my dreams in everything I touch Now we’re tumbling down I fashioned you from jewels and stone But every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers Now we’re tumbling down Did you want to be a winner? I never saw the light When we fall in love | A PROPOS « Love Is The End I think is a great way to finish the album. What is says more than anything is love will out, love is the most important thing. And I think it is a great way to end the record, because there are so many questions being asked about where we are going as a species, and who we are as human beings and the notion, that hippie-ish notion that love can win is something that personally, I hold in high regard. I feel it is very important. For us as a band, that song came out of the tricky times we’ve had as a band. You know I think for us, as a band, the love we have for each other and the love for our music was the thing that got us through in the end. And so I do think it is a powerful thing to have at the end of the album. In a philosophical sense I think it is a very potent song. And it ends with a gong. » (Tom, Perfect Symmetry’s bonus DVD) |
PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Now, during a scene Seen it all before We drink, we drink a little much Drink a little more To shake off the nerves and To take off the edge and Now is there any way back home? Seen it all before and I know the signs We drink, drink a little much To stimulate the mind Now it’s two hours to go Insult everyone that we know Now it’s such a long way home Maybe it’s time to go? Maybe it’s time we went? You are making a spectacle Maybe it’s time we left? I don’t want to spoil your night I don’t want to hurt your pride But maybe it’s time to go Maybe it’s time? Now eating from your hand Laugh at every line Soon losing track of you Losing track of time Now it is dead on the dance floor And nobody is laughing anymore Have I become a tiresome bore? Maybe it’s time to go? Maybe it’s time we went? You are making a spectacle Maybe it is time we left? I don’t want to spoil your night I don’t want to hurt your pride But maybe it’s time to go? Maybe it’s time to go? Where there is nowhere to hide From what is broken inside A faultline rips right open Under the wide wide ocean’s tide Under the wide wide ocean Maybe it’s time to go? Maybe it’s time we went? You are making a spectacle Maybe it’s time we left? I don’t want to spoil your night I don’t want to hurt your pride But maybe it’s time to fly Maybe it’s time? Maybe it’s time to go? Maybe it’s time? | A PROPOS
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PAROLES Rice-Oxley/Chaplin/Hughes Things will seem much better in the morning light, You just need time to forget. You’re lying on the floor and Remember when you held And you want life without death. Lying on the floor and Thinking of your own friends. These days you don’t know who you are. So meet me by the wall, You’re lying on the floor and Waiting for the phonecall. | A PROPOS
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