Music reporter, BBC News
Late-night Berlin bars, 1980s alt-pop and John Lennon's quest for peace and love have all had a big influence on the new album by Keane, Perfect Symmetry.
"The band went to Berlin to experience its "creative renaissance"
So far, the Keane story involves an epic debut, a swift rise to stardom, followed by a difficult, dark return and a descent into drink and drugs.
Now comes the redemption, or so the plan goes.
The trio's third album sees them open up musically and emotionally as they tackle the big issues facing the human race.
"The record is much more about love than anything else," says songwriter and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley.
But first to Berlin, to where the band escaped on a sleeper train to have an adventure, and ended up staying to write and record most of the album.
"We felt it would be nice just to be a gang and decamp to another city, somewhere that we liked the look of and seemed vibrant and exciting," explains singer Tom Chaplin.
"It's not like London, where you get kicked out at a certain hour and fight people for a taxi or try and find a night bus," drummer Richard Hughes adds.
"Basically it's a 24-hour city and there's always something cool going on."
¨We just threw the rules of what should be tasteful and cool out of the window¨
Singer Tom Chaplin
Apple vodka and milkshakes
Much of that involved drinking apple vodka and milkshakes in an all-night 1930s cabaret-style bar.
"That sense of excess is something you can feel in the music," says Rice-Oxley.
The band say they have been listening to lots of 1980s guitar bands
"Berlin's having such a creative renaissance. The history of the place gives it a mournful grandeur."
That last phrase can be applied to much of the band's music, and they say the city's atmosphere had a big influence on the album.
"A lot of the most inspirational or defining sounds and ideas of the record were done out there," Rice-Oxley says.
"That combination of history and space… it always feels like a much more open city than London. I think you can really feel that on the album."
The album makes a move away from their trademark power piano, and towards a more synth-led sound.
There's a more liberated feel to the offbeat electronic pop indulgence, the reverberating vocals, the handclaps, the saxophone and, not least, the musical saw.
"We just threw the rules of what should be tasteful and cool out of the window," says Chaplin, confessing that they had been listening to a lot of 1980s guitar bands.
Strangling weeds
But the emotive content is no less yearning than the Keane of old.
Keane's 2004 debut album Hopes and Fears sold 2.5 million copies in the UK
At one end of the epic scale, they come across all Simple Minds and U2, and at other times they more resemble Talking Heads, David Bowie or Heaven 17.
The lyrics seem to paint a picture of a turbulent soul still struggling to find a place in the world.
There is lots of drowning and tumbling, some strangling weeds and a song called Black Burning Heart.
But Rice-Oxley says the album is more about the perilous state of the human race than his own inner tumult.
The underlying theme is the gulf between what people want to be and what they actually are, he says.
And the album title is an ironic reference to the fact that reality is rarely a reflection of our ideals.
"I like the idea of that total disparity between what we dream of being, and what we actually are," he says. "That distortion of how we perceive ourselves."
So the record is more about love than anything else - love and human sympathy, he explains.
¨I feel excited about making music again and being in Keane, and that was certainly not a situation we were in a couple of years ago¨
Tom Chaplin
"I wouldn't describe myself as a spiritual person in any way, but the one thing I do believe in is people, and the whole record is a much less selfish record.
"It's full of a love of humanity and a burning desire for all of us to be better and to aspire to be better to each other."
Winning battles
The word "hippyish" is mentioned a few times to describe the spirit of the songs, if not the sound.
In fact, Chaplin says the band are taking up the cause of "love and peace that was so heavily promoted by people like John Lennon".
"It would be nice to feel that that those things haven't been forgotten, even though we are still fighting as many wars and there's still as much trouble," he says.
Perfect Symmetry is released in the UK on 13 October
"It would be nice to feel like our generation could do something to alter that."
The singer is turning his attention to global peace after winning some battles of his own.
After the release of their last album Under the Iron Sea in 2006, he went into rehab to be treated for drink and drug problems.
"I feel very well," he says now. "I feel enthused and excited about making music again and being in Keane, and that was certainly not a situation we were in a couple of years ago.
"And a lot of that was getting back on the road and learning to enjoy ourselves again, and it's changed everything immeasurably.
"Although it was a very dark period, it was two years ago, and it seems very distant to me. I almost feel like it was someone else's life."
Personally as well as musically, then, Perfect Symmetry marks a fresh start.
