Midpoint

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His self-titled third album has been promoted as his most personal, and while there is no doubting his sincerity and commitment to the issues that fuel his lyrics, I am not sure the autobiographical emphasis does him any great favour. He has spoken frankly about experiencing suicidal thoughts since the age of 13, and on Billy Idol-style punk charge The Funeral, he fulfils teenage fantasies of witnessing his own burial. Sweet Heroine makes a bit too much of the most overused drug pun in pop history (heroin/heroine) in a dubious song of addictive love that does at least find Yungblud making the admission “I really need to call up my mum”. Tom Chaplin has become that most unfashionable of things: a middle-aged man. But unlike many pop stars, rather than enter a state of denial, the Keane frontman has decided to confront the inevitable head-on with Midpoint, his third solo album. Chaplin uses a Hammond XK2 organ for "Hamburg Song" and " Nothing in My Way". Since May 2006, he has used a Yamaha CP60M for live piano parts in " A Bad Dream", " The Frog Prince" and " Crystal Ball". [6] Although predominantly known as lead singer and pianist for the band Keane, Chaplin has been taking his solo career by storm since his critically-acclaimed debut album, ‘The Wave’, released in 2016.

Meanwhile, in 1995, the trio of Scott, Rice-Oxley and Hughes started their first band, The Lotus Eaters. It was a cover band that played U2, Oasis and The Beatles at Sussex pubs. Tim Rice-Oxley invited Chaplin to join the band as an acoustic guitar player. A short time later, in 1997, the band's name changed to Keane and Chaplin became the lead singer.The lingering narrative that nevertheless clings to them is that they could indeed have replicated Coldplay’s success if only they hadn’t bottled it. The truth is a little more complicated. I’ve learned about myself, and all the ways in which I might be happier, and I’m better equipped to deal with what life throws at me. Of course, things still gnaw away at me, but I don’t want to revert to type again, and I like that life now goes on in a more measured fashion. I like,” he suggests, “that sort of bobbing-along notion. It suits me.” The honesty, of relatable life experiences, wrapped up in musical beauty, is the standout feature of Chaplin’s ‘Midpoint’ project, produced by Ethan Johns, and will resonate with audiences around the UK during the October tour and long afterwards. The classical elements intertwined with Chaplin’s distinctive songwriting is what makes the album unique, despite feeling nostalgic to that of Elton John and The Beatles. It radiates such positive energy, and feels very wholesome and true to Tom himself. Tom Chaplin: A suitable case for treatment". The Guardian. 27 August 2006 . Retrieved 16 December 2016.

Tom began writing these new songs two years ago when Keane’s 2019 Cause and Effect tour was interrupted by the pandemic. The songs, all founded on reflection and imagination, were recorded in six weeks at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath and Paul Epworth’s The Church in North London. Leona Lewis: 'Things with Simon Cowell got messy' 27 November, 2023 Ian Broudie: 'Three Lions was misunderstood' 03 November, 2023 Pete Doherty: 'If Mark Blanco's mum believes I killed her son, I should meet her' 27 October, 2023 Take Chaplin’s declaration on New Flowers, in which he tells us: “I don’t need no fast life on the road / I just want to savour my time getting old” (which stretches belief, given that he has announced UK tour dates). Or the dodgy metaphors on Gonna Run, a ballad whose lyrics aim for something of the style and wit of Bernie Taupin, but fall short with: “I’ve left so many lies in a box behind the door / I’m afraid they’re going to break out and pin me to the floor.”

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In January 2022, Chaplin appeared on the third series of The Masked Singer as "Poodle". He was fifth to be unmasked. Following that event, he said in an interview that he was working on his third solo album, that would be coming out later in 2022. During their stint in London, Chaplin shared a flat with Rice-Oxley in Stoke Newington and they tried to get money for rehearsal time. Chaplin worked at a publishing company where his chief responsibility was to carry boxes. I’m in love again / And tomorrow I’ll be sad,” blubs Yungblud on his latest single, Tissues. As a soundbite, it offers a fair summation of the 25-year-old Yorkshire pop-punk singer-songwriter’s entire oeuvre. Set to a shamelessly borrowed Cure riff (from 1985’s Close to Me) and a slappy 1980s beat that would make A-Ha blush, Tissues is delivered with the snarly angst of someone who positively revels in his own and other people’s misery. “I don’t want you to hide your issues / Blow them into your tissues / Give ’em to me,” chimes a jaunty singalong chorus that may have more squeamish listeners dashing for the bathroom to wash their hands.

So that’s a proper partnership, but I do know what it’s like to test that partnership. At times, it feels like it’s gone a little stale, and sometimes you do feel that there might be another life out there, and would I be better off? Do I tear everything down and start again? I know that there’s so much I take for granted, but I have children, I have a home, and I wouldn’t ever want to say goodbye to that; that’s a frightening thought.” He shudders. “So I’m happy to make [the relationship] feel like a different kind of love, or that the love has shifted, and changed. It doesn’t mean it’s any less. It’s just different.” The pop songs here are sparsely made, with minimal guitars and drums allowing Nesbitt’s strong vocals to do much of the heavy lifting – and for the most part, it works. Pressure Makes Diamonds is the album’s standout moment and a cutting reflection of what it’s like to be a woman approaching 30 in the music industry. “Every year I’m getting closer / To my career being over / ’Cause my sex appeal is lower,” she says, in a style reminiscent of Marina. Older Guys is similarly smart pop with a message about men taking advantage of young girls. T HE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “ Tom Chaplin, frontman for the band Keane, has released his new solo album Midpoint. Produced by Ethan Johns, this emotionally charged collection features 13 new songs sung with beauty and grace. Chaplin married his girlfriend Natalie Dive in June 2011. [9] He has a daughter born on 20 March 2014 and a son born in 2020. [10] The family lives in Wittersham, Kent. [11]Ultimately that instrumentation wins out though, and though in places it is intriguing to think what a more experimental Chaplin album would sound like, there’s nothing here that would scare the horses on Radio 2. And his own songwriting is certainly not a million miles from Keane leader Tim Rice-Oxley’s – in quality as well as in style. In fact, it really hits the spot more often than it misses, and it’s certainly stranger and more interesting than more cynical recent acts like Ed Sheeran who’ve taken this template and run with it. Keane's Tom Chaplin: 'Golf has helped me overcome drug problems' ". NME. 17 March 2010 . Retrieved 16 December 2016.