''Hopes and Fears'' is the debut studio album by the English

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band Keane. It was released on 10 May 2004 in the United Kingdom and topped the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

upon release. It was the UK's second best-selling album of 2004, behind the Scissor Sisters' self-titled debut album, and has since been certified 9× Platinum by the BPI. The album returned to the top of the charts after winning a Brit Award for Best Album in February 2005. With more than 2.7 million copies sold in the UK, ''Hopes and Fears'' ranks the 11th-best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. In July 2011, it was ranked the 9th-highest-selling album of the 21st century in the UK. As of September 2019 it is the 36th- best-selling album in UK chart history. Worldwide, the album has sold over 5.8 million copies . It was also among ten albums nominated for the best British album of the previous 30 years by the Brit Awards in 2010, ultimately losing to ''

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? ''(What's the Story) Morning Glory?'' is the second studio album by the English Rock music, rock band Oasis (band), Oasis. Released on 2 October 1995 by Creation Records, it was produced by Owen Morris and the group's lead guitarist and chief ...

'' by

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment

Album information

Unlike their follow-up album, most songs were already composed by the album's conception date; the track "She Has No Time" was composed circa 1999, making it the earliest composed song appearing on the album. Some were already played in a guitar-led form with Dominic Scott still in the band. "Bedshaped", "She Has No Time", and "This Is The Last Time" were played at some of the last gigs with Scott. The tracks "On a Day Like Today" and "We Might As Well Be Strangers" became the last to be composed, circa 2003. The album was recorded at Helioscentric Studios in Peasmarsh, Rye by Andy Green and the band between September and

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

2003. James Sanger did not attend any recording sessions post his involvement with the band in 2001. The album was mixed down to six channels to enable a release on

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the compact disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple a ...

(SACD). The album takes its name from the lyrics of the song " Snowed Under", released as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

on the single for " Somewhere Only We Know". The relevant section of the lyrics reads: "You've been looking everywhere for someone to understand your hopes and fears." Hal Leonard music published two versions of the official score book for ''Hopes and Fears'', designed for differing skill levels. The Music Sales Group also published a book, including two demo CDs with accompanying

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

and

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

tracks, along with scores for the B-side songs "Snowed Under", "

Walnut Tree Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus ''Juglans'', the type genus of the family (biology), family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, tall, with pinnate leaves , with ...

", and " Fly to Me".

Singles

Critical reception

''Hopes and Fears'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Review-aggregating website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, reported a normalised score of 61/100, based on 18 reviews, indicating "generally favourable" reviews.

Playlouder ''Playlouder'' was an online music magazine based in London. It provided news, reviews, gig-listings, features, and other music-related content. The publisher later moved into providing music access, and claimed to be the world's first music ser ...

was very positive, calling it "one of the best albums you'll hear this year", as was ''Q'' magazine, which gave it four out of five stars and wrote that "as a debut album, its confidence is right up there with [

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment AllMusic, giving the album four and a half out of five stars, praised its "beautiful, emotive dalliance of instrumentation", singer Tom Chaplin's "rich vocals", and the band's "open-hearted ambition...audible on every song", while ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' noted that the album "contains more hooks than most pop groups manage in their careers." In a mixed three-star review, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' criticised the first half the album for "rely ngtoo heavily on Chaplin's show-stopping vocals" and for the "radio-friendly simplicity of the lyrics", while praising "Can't Stop Now" as a "swooning, epic pop song" and the "booming drum and bass" of "Untitled 1" on the second half. '' Drowned in Sound'' gave it 5 out of 10, accusing Keane of excessively imitating

Coldplay Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...

(specifically comparing "Your Eyes Open" and "On a Day Like Today" to, respectively, "Daylight" and "Politik" on the band's album ''

A Rush of Blood to the Head ''A Rush of Blood to the Head'' is the second studio album by the British rock band Coldplay. It was released on 26 August 2002 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and a day later by Capitol in the United States. The album was produced by t ...

''), criticising the album as being "stylistically all over the place" and its lyrics as being "immature" and "cringe-worthy". However, it gave credit to the album's "fine moments", praising lead single " Somewhere Only We Know", for example, as "breathtaking".

Legacy

In 2006, ''

British Hit Singles & Albums ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' (originally known as ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles'' and ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums'') was a music reference work, reference book originally published in the United Kingdom by the p ...

'' and ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' organised a poll in which 40,000 people worldwide voted for the 100 best albums ever, and ''Hopes and Fears'' was placed at #51 on the list. The album was ranked #5 in Amazon's Best Selling Albums of the Decade. In 2005, the album won the Brit Award for best album. In 2010 the album was nominated for Brit awards in the category Album of 30 Years; however, it lost to Oasis's ''

'' In 2011, ''Q'' magazine made a list called 250 Best Albums of Q's Lifetime 1986–2010 and the album appeared at number 34.

Track listing

Original release

Japanese edition

International editions

Deluxe edition

Issued in 2009. The first CD includes the original UK track list, as seen above, plus tracks 13–19. The second CD presents B-sides, early singles, and other rare tracks.

Personnel

Keane * Tom Chaplin – lead vocals * Tim Rice-Oxley – piano, keyboards, bass, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "Sunshine" * Richard Hughes – drums Additional personnel *Andy Green – programming and production *Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Bonus DVD

A CD+DVD version was released internationally over the course of 2005. This version included two bonus tracks, "Snowed Under" and a

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

dance version of "We Might as Well Be Strangers" by

DJ Shadow Joshua Paul Davis (born June 29, 1972 in San Jose, California, San Jose, California), better known by his stage name DJ Shadow, is an American DJ and record producer. His debut studio album, ''Endtroducing.....,'' was released in 1996. He uses l ...

. The DVD contained the four international videos for "Somewhere Only We Know", "Everybody's Changing", "Bedshaped", and "This is the Last Time", and the US video for "Somewhere Only We Know". This version of ''Hopes and Fears'' also featured a different box cover design: white and with Keane's "Everybody's Changing" promotional image. The inner 2-CD box had the same cover as the international version.

Track listing

#"Somewhere Only We Know" (international version video) #"Somewhere Only We Know" (US version video) #"Everybody's Changing" (version 1 video) #"Bedshaped" (video) #"This Is the Last Time" (version 4 video)

Japanese version

#Keane 30-second TV advertisement #"Somewhere Only We Know" (live) #"She Has No Time" (live) #"This Is the Last Time" (live) #"We Might As Well Be Strangers" (live) #"Everybody's Changing" (live) #"Bedshaped" (live) #"Somewhere Only We Know" (international version video)

References

External links

Official album site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopes And Fears 2004 debut albums Island Records albums Brit Award for British Album of the Year Keane (band) albums Keane (band) video albums