Keane Release New Video for ‘Sovereign Light Cafe’

Keane‘s new album ‘Strangeland‘ — a Top 20 hit here in the States and a chart-topping smash across Europe — is ready to extend the band’s run of radio success with the set’s third single, ‘Sovereign Light Cafe.’ Although the song isn’t scheduled to go to radio for adds until mid-July, the band debuted the official video for the song today (May 30).

Speaking to NME about ‘Strangeland,’ keyboard player Tim Rice-Oxley described it as “a very emotional album,” adding, “The title track is about setting off in a certain path in life and thinking it’s going to go one way, but finding out life’s taken a detour. Pretty much every song on the album is about that. [But] it’s a more hopeful record than it might sound.”

‘Sovereign Light Cafe’ fits that mold perfectly, relying on the band’s gift for gently soaring melodies to convey the sort of poignant, reflective longing you might feel when walking along the beach with your hands in your pockets — as singer Tom Chaplin does throughout the video.

“I’m going back to the time when we owned this town,” sings Chaplin in the song’s opening verse. “Down Powder Mill Lane, in the battlegrounds / We were friends and lovers and clueless clowns.” Echoing the yearning, nostalgic overtones of the lyrics, the clip finds Chaplin strolling along a boardwalk, caught between symbols of youth (teenage dancers and bikers) and grown-up regret (aging members of a marching band). It is, in other words, a pretty potent visual summary of Keane’s music — and a fine fit for ‘Sovereign Light Cafe’ in particular.

Watch the Keane ‘Sovereign Light Cafe’ Video