Could it be their fat-faced, drugged-up, port addicted, rah-rah-rah-ther old boy, public-school boy singer with his faux-rockstar posturing?

Or is it because they're too nice?

they spend too much time trying to justify themselves.

they're nice, their music's nice, their record sales are nice, their pets are nice...

nice, nice, nice, nice, nice.

That's not enough, I'm afraid...

Thats something you say about biscuits isn't it?

You got your garibaldi, you got your bourbons then of course you've got your Peek Freens Trotsky Assortment.

Revolutionary biscuits of Italy,
Rise up out of your box,
You have nothing to lose but your wafers

(sorry, its a reflex reaction)

at least its not the music that puts you off.

I think it was the omnipresence of 'Everybody's Changing' that made em get on my wick. It was the lazy default setting for any TV drama or trailer that showed divorce, death or regeneration.

I know thats not their fault but it helps to turn your feelings (and your stomach) against a band. same with that bloody 'Chasing Cars' that haunted my waking hours for what seemes like centuries

... I agree the new one is their best album. I liked the singles off the first one but could take or leave the rest, and the second album didn't interest me at all. Though rather in thrall to A-Ha, I've been really enjoying the latest, and I agree that if (say) "Spiralling" had been by Black Kids or MGMT or whoever, then it would be hailed as a modern pop classic (and I love that "Booooooooo!" noise, though I'm sure it drives most people spare...)

Why are they unloved by the cognoscenti? I guess they're in that vein of "soft-as-shite" indie as Coldplay and Snow Patrol that just isn't interesting to write about, however many units they shift... Pete Doherty's at the other end of that particular spectrum!

I've been mulling away at a similar idea for a while now.
There are a lot of comments on this site against the so called 'wets'
Your Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Keane etc plus also older acts such as Nick Drake and most 'lady' singers too.
Now Coldplay, Keane et al are not my favourite artists, but I am partial to a bit now and then and I'm always surprised at the venom directed at these bands when there are other far more deserving characters out there.
Someone like Daniel O'Donnell or Cliff Richard, surely we can all agree that they represent the turgid depths of 'wetdom'?
I know a lot of you have a problem when singers display what are commonly known as 'feelings'. But really, there is nothing to fear! Just because it's not an old blind delta blues person wailing about how bad his day has been doesn't mean you can't empathise. It's ok to care! You wont necessarily end up buying scatter cushions!

1st album - The singles were good, if now overplayed, but the album tracks were boring.

2nd album - Picked this up for £1 in Borders a few months ago. Awful. Couldn't find one real proper song on it.

3rd album - I haven't heard it. The single starts good with the "wooooo" vocals, but then the rest of the song is so uninteresting I couldn't hum it or remember a single lyric from it.

I just don't think that anyone who makes "anthemic" music that will get the masses singing along will get much critical aclaim these days.

As Noel Gallagher once said, "Traditionally speaking, the three biggest twats in any band are the singer, the keyboardist and the drummer. I don't need to say anything else."

are guilty of snobbery of some sort, that's what makes it such a fantastic subject to witter on about - we all have our guilty secrets and we all have our irrational prejudices.

For me, I have never liked Keane - firstly because of the music, then I would say for exactly all those irritating traits you listed (you've almost answered your own question by listing them there Lee!)...unfortunately they do wind me up for all those reasons.
Hate to sound like I'm part of a herd, far from it as I have stood up proudly (and suffered the slings and arrows) in proclaiming my dislike of Elbow...

Personally speaking, I just find their music extremely dull and too "worthy" or angst-ridden if you know what I'm getting at.
I do also tend to lump them in with Coldplay and Snow Patrol, it's true - it's all just too depressing for my tastes.

I also guess it might depend on age and what your musical upbringing was - I don't know many people over 35 that get Keane or Snow Patrol in the slightest - but there's no denying that they sell a shit load of records.

Nothing too offensive, even their 80s influences are the gentler end of things.

I don't know, they're alright, but nothing really stands out. Their songs are ok, their singer is ok, the sounds they use are alright. But everything is...just so. Even their depressed doesn't sound very depressed, just a marketing idea of depressed, perfect to play in the background of one of those Monday night two parter dramas on ITV, perhaps with Tamsin Outhwaite in it.

I really liked that song of theirs Somewhere Only We Know, but it was out when I was first getting together with my now wife. Except it sounds like Macca's Let Em In a little too much...

I can see how it's easy lump 'em in with Snore Patrol and Coldplay, but I think that yer man, the singer, has a decent voice and a pop sensibility that the others lack. Now i accept that the ubiquity will have turned a lot of the Massive off them. I hated Everythings Changing at the start and it was only when i noticed the little funny chord thing at the end - is it a key change - that I reckoned I'd give the band another chance. Since then, well, I'll listen to them. I'm not sure how far I'd travel to see them live, or if I would at all, but in terms of honest to God, mainstream, melodic pop they're okay. I don't think the angst is anywhere near the levels churned out by Mrs Paltrows husband or the other lot.

Ubiquity isn't a good enough reason to hate a band or their music. Your radio has an OFF switch, you know.

said that he liked them because they sound like Genesis. Anyone agree?

Does look remarkably like Ian Faith - Spinal Tap's manager.
Maybe that puts some people off?

seems to be just that. The ire against Coldplay was minimal (Alan McGee aside) until the lead singer hitched up with a Hollywood actress. The bastard. Its more about Gwynnie, Apple and whether their marriage is on the rocks than the worth or otherwise of the music

although the writing messages on your body in black marker was sooo early 90's Prince.

way before Paltrow came on the scene - I had the misfortune to see them twice by mistake as they supported the mighty Shack - they were met by deafening silence, well except for a few jeers from the audience who weren't in the bar.

But having said that, you just had that feeling that they were going to be popular, here was the latest industry hype band, you know the sort that aways seem to get the plum support slots, you can't avoid them at gigs and go from that to Top Of The Pops in a couple of weeks.

... managed a band called Terris in the late 90's who were vaguely fancied, or at least had a major-label deal back in the days when that actually meant something.

The short version is that Coldplay supported them on tour, and absolutely no-one spotted that these whey-faced pups were going to be number 1 a year later and become "the next U2" (or whoever you care to name), and he still gets a thousand yard stare whenever the subject somes up at just how wrong he got it...

Mind you, bearing in mind John Lennon's assertion that "You've got to be a bastard to make it in this business, and the reason The Beatles were the biggest band in the world is because we were the biggest bastards", you can't help wondering if there's a side of that nice Mr. Martin that we don't get to see...

is over exposure. They would be good as an occasional cup of strongish if over sweetened tea but someone poured them into Thames and is expecting me drink it everyday.

When coldplays last lp the vida loca game out the beeb showed at least 3 live events featuring the band. Plus interviews tv appearances and playing the songs etc and frankly the music isn't up to that sort of scrutiny .

I worried that Elbow will go the same way and I Love elbow, that every tv Ident and gardening programme will play "starlings" over shots of monty don's petunias and I'll grow to hate them.

also Moonface has got a moon face and he's a posh boy so we are allowed to take the mick.

against these bands that I find hard to understand.
Maybe it's me. I was trying to think of why, specifically, I dislike Stereophonics, or Kaiser Chiefs or Red Hot Chilli Peppers (they are probably my 3 least favourite 'Rock' acts) but found it hard to be specific (Stereophonics - it's the voice/Kaiser Chiefs - sound like they come up with the annoying song titles first then write an annoying song to fit/Red Hot Chilli Peppers - funk rock, the voice, the annoying songs ~ it's not much to go really, is it?) and then realised that even these bands have one or two songs that I don't dislike. So perhaps that's it, there are a lot of bands I love, a lot I'm indifferent about, but it takes a lot for me to 'Hate' a band.

Well I was aware that the lead singer had a drug problem but I didn't know that they went to public school, I don't know what they look like at all - I don't even know how many of them there are, I have no idea whether they're nice or not (I also didn't know that that was a method of deciding if their records are any good.)
I base my views emtirely on the records and I think they're awful. The early ones were just plinky plonk outings with some cliched lyrics, the new ones are amateurish attempts to make something a bit heavier. I disliked the "new sound" before I even knew it was Keane.

Has anyone listened to their albums or followed their progress? I get the strong feeling people write them off just because of the ubiquity of Run and Chasing Cars.

I first got into them from Gary Lightbody's work with people from Belle & Sebastian in The Reindeer Section. They (Snow Patrol) were a classic critically-more-than-commercially-successful indie band. Their breakthrough album, Final Straw, is a really great album, and while I'd agree that they have trodden water for the two follow-ups, both contain some excellent tracks. And not all like Run/Chasing Cars at all.

is that they lack both the dark charisma of their namesake Roy and the cheeky charm of Robbie.

I reckon if they had come out with intense, brilliant music the personal stuff wouldn't have been heard so much. But they didn't. They have a certain way with a tune which I have detected on most of their singles, though the I find the performance is lacking. One of their new songs is too close to Simple Minds for me not to be able to get beyond that fact. Like Coldplay and Snow Patrol it's all a bit earnest and there's a lack of invention, imagination, daring and, er, balls really - unlike MGMT who someone mentioned (and who have a decent name too, unlike Keane and co). These big, stodgy bands of ours just seem uninspired. Whereas Nick Drake, referred to as similarly wet on this site - great voice, great guitarist, great lyricist, intense and original, so no comparison.

Don't understand the bile of some against Keane etc mind you, but then it's no different to bile directed at the famous in general. Goes with territory but I do find it can get cruel - but that's the world today.

Sven.

I read about Keane before I heard them and I got quite excited: A rock-pop three piece who don't do guitar, wow that could be really interesting. And I already liked the Ben Folds Five.

When I eventually heard Everybody's Changing I couldn't believe how wet and awful it was. Really awful.

This cartoon explains how I see them:

Although I was pleasantly surprised when I heard Spiralling on the radio, which is now the Keane song I like most, they kind of undone it when they appeared on Jools and sounded bad. Tom seems to be concentrating too hard to play that guitar...

Being posh has nothing to do with it. Have you ever heard a Pink Floyd interview?

I don't think there's too many keyboard-lead groups that are approved by the tastemakers out there. My opinion on this has always been that the piano is a difficult instrument to play compared to the guitar and (crucially) requires lessons to get any good at it. In this country, we particularly don't like people who work hard at something and excel at it, and to be good enough to play piano in public then you must have gone through this. The cost of lessons also implies some sort of privilege and therefore does not comply with the mostly unwritten rules of punk. Learning three or four chords on a guitar is easy & cheap in comparison.

In the U.S., where I work part of the time, it's different. They love people who work hard, study diligently, and become good at something. You aren't a "girly swot" (as Rik from the Young Ones would have it). That's why they like Elton, Billy Joel, Bruce Hornsby, and probably Coldplay so much.

Regarding Keane, the recent Prog issue of the Word saw them namechecked a number of times for being in some sense progressive, but then, prog rockers have all had piano lessons, right?

Coldplay, Keane, The Ting Tings and others all make (to my ears) decent records but rely on sequencers to add either keyboards or bass when playing live. It wouldn't hurt them to employ an extra player and be a bit less constrained by a click track.

I first encountered Keane on the telly and was so taken with it I called people after the clip, and enthused madly at the disinterested GLW. We ended up getting the first album but by then I couldn't remember what the track i heard sounded like. As the thing went on I found it particularly uninspiring pop but not offensive. Next I stumbled across them on the other stage at Glastonbury and was instantly reminded of a early Coldplay gig I'd been to where I had just been baffled at the attraction of the band. Weak playing, weak singing, weak and repetitive melodies. Still didn't hate them mind, no need to, just made a note I didnt need to see either of them again.

In fact it was less the band but the audience that reminded me of the Coldplay show. The audience didn't really seem that thrilled to be there. Blank faces, no singing, no dancing (tapping the left foot while holding drink in right hand if you're a fella) and no joy. By the time I ended up hearing both of them on the main stages at festivals all over the shop my indifference was turning to peevishness. Still not hate, but the absolute over exposure and seemingly inexplicable worship of millions just started to irk me and jealousy crept in. After all, the bands I liked were far better and deserved more recognition. It all culminated with trudging around the back of the pyramid stage crowd for oldplays headline gig at the really wet glasto a few years back. Huge crowd, no atmosphere, niceness and black writing on hand. By now I would rant at anyone even mentioning either band about their crimes against creativity in music.

A few years on, I'm a Dad, grown up a bit and realised there are more important things to expend the fading energy on than hating bands. I still have an instant reflex spasm for the off button when any of the aforementioned come on the radio but I am safe in the knowledge its because I dont like it and not that I hate people I've never met because they got lucky with a few tunes

..until I stood next to him at a baggage carousel and he smiled and just said 'Hi.', (I'm a paunchy 40 year old bloke, by the way). It reminded me that, at the end of the day, he's just another human being and that making irritating records is hardly a hanging offence, (Ronan Keating aside, of course).

so let me get this right going to public school is a reason for not liking a person or a pop star or a member of Keane ? Ever heard of inverted snobbery?

Maybe the reason for the hate against bands such as Keane, Coldplay, Snow Patrol is that they reflect 'us'.
I'm not sure exactly what i'm trying to say but i will try to explain.
Everyone wants to feel like an individual, special in some way. When i walk into a party or down the street and encounter individuals who look and dress and talk the same as me my sense of individuality and specialness gets affronted. I feel a bit miffed off with the people around me. But what i'm really annoyed at is the fact that i'm just like everyone else. Nothing special.
I reckon the people who hate bands like those mentioned are very similar to those individuals who make up the band members and the music they make. It kind of reflects our somewhat ordinary lives and we don't like it.

You have no choice about your socio economic or educational background and certainly shouldn't be written off for being born into financially lubricated circumstances. There may well be a case for the children of famous folk being banned from recording careers however.. that rarely works out it seems to me, and they definitely get the breaks denied greater talents. Would nayone have noticed Lily Allen had her Dad not been Keith? I think the first press about her I stumbled across was a Mail on Sunday supplement in the dentist's waiting room..

I quite liked the first album (which seems to be a recurring theme in this household) but now it's all so dull.

Can I start a campaign in these hard times for a return to chirpy music.

For God Sake you Rock Stars, write something chipper!

..produce great art I think, and so it goes with music. I don't want to come over all, "We had nowt but we were 'appy" but the 80's happened after a period of relative austerity, (in fact, Rock n Roll full stop did, if you think about it). It's the ART that's missing from much of today's music..

A condensed version of the quarter page review:

"If proof were needed that Keane are heading towards pop's dumper, it came with this years Brits nominations. Scouting For Girls got three nominations. How many did Perfect Symmetry receive? None. Keane than are so rubbish they can't even get a Brit Award nomination.

Except they're not really - just victims of time and circumstance. The problem is that people have made their minds up about them. Indie fans scarpered the moment it became clear that Keane records were for car-bound sales executives. Yummy mummies just decided Coldplay were a whole lot better after all and bought Viva La Vida. Everyone else probably downloaded Spiralling and decided that was enough Keane for one autumn, thank you.

Add to this records so patchy it's almost impressive and you have to surmise that Keane will probably be waving goodbye to the arenas they're currently touring. Mediocrity, thankfully, is losing out big time."

Sounds about right to me.

- he'll do a grand job back at Tottenham