I recently purchaced the Keane CD- Hopes and Fears, and I have also been a long time fan of Coldplay. I was just wondering if anyone knew any good bands similar to these two.

You'll definately like Kent. Pick up the album Isola asap!

Definitely check out Aqualung, the band, not the Tull song:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=music
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=music

Similar sound to the two bands you mentioned and the guy has a great voice.

Check out Starsailor... the lead singer has an amazing voice (better than Chris Martin, in my opinion), and they are constantly compared to Coldplay. Their first CD, "Love Is Here" is absolutely amazing.

Also, try Elbow, The Doves, and Travis. The are all really, really good.

The Leaves
Trash Can Sinatras
The Doves

Of course, minor differences, but not THAT far removed.

Starsailor's newest "Silence Is Easy" starts of with a four song BAM that is amazing to me. It got marginal reviews, but it's one of the better starts to any album I've heard recently.

Starsailor are way better than Coldplay.

I never thought of Travis as being similar, but they are an awesome band, especially live.

To second some of the above posts, Travis is a very good band, probably the closest in sound to Coldplay and Travis (especially the singer). They just put out a very good singles collection, but if you were to buy an album, start with "The Man Who".

Doves are one of my favorite bands, "Last Broadcast" and "Lost Souls" are fantastic albums. Elbow are quite good. Their first album is decent, but their second, "Cast of Thousands" is great.

If you really like Coldplay, I recommend picking up some of the import singles of songs from "Rush of Blood to the Head". Coldplay are one of the few bands that put top quality songs on their b-sides and many of the b-sides from the last album could have easily been album tracks.

Mercury Rev

I'd echo the Travis comment. The first time I listened to the Keane cd, I thought I was listening to Travis on the first song. I really like Travis though, so its fine with me.

I'd add Snow Patrol to the list of similar bands.

They're more rock than Keane or Coldplay but I gotta plug Muse.

I would also say give Straylight Run a listen. I just bought the album and it is pretty good, not Coldplay or Keane, but something similar that you might enjoy.

they're all pretty similar to radiohead

Similar to Coldplay? There's an obscure little band called U2.

Kenna

Another vote for Starsailor, and Travis.
Also check out the band that most likely influenced them all .. James
.. in which case, check out the band that in turn influenced James .. The Smiths.

Funny, I downloaded a couple of Starsailor tunes and they sound eerily like James...I actually thought it was James for a few seconds.

I'm not sure I get how they were influenced by the Smiths though. There are a ton of Morrissey ripoffs out there, but I don't really think this genre is part of that scene.

I share the same suggestions as some of the other posters -- Travis. Good stuff in their own rite.

Listen to the very first James album and you'll probably change your mind.

I really liked the couple of Starsailor songs I downloaded, and for what it's worth, their first two (?) discs are really cheap on half.com. $5-6 each shipped. I also ordered the Travis singles collection blind for about 7 bucks. Will report back on that one.

I downloaded a bunch of Aqualung songs since their CDs are import only (apparently), and I'm on the fence about him. His stuff is kind of slow and mopey, but there are some real gems in there.

But for what it's worth, I don't think any of this stuff is in the same league as Bends/OK Computer era Radiohead or Rush of Blood to the Head....or even Keane's new one for that matter.

Off to check out Kent...

I only have Laid, so you may be entirely correct. Are you saying that James bridged the gap between the Smiths and this genre?

Not sure about bridging the gap, but they definitely changed (for the better) by the time they made Laid.

another vote for Travis and also check out a band called Wood. I really liked their album Songs from stamford hill

Another band to check out is Palo Alto. You'll think you found two missing Radiohead albums from the time between Pablo Honey and The Bends.

When you check out Kent make sure to listen to the songs "OWC", "If You Were Here", "Elvis", "747" and "Bianca".

The verdict is in on Aqualung. The first eponymous album is just a bit "meh" in my opinion, but his second album "Still Life" is really really tight and might even be worth the import price. Both albums fit almost in their entirety on one 80 min CD for what it's worth. I just left off a few of the last songs on his first album.

The track list for my mix is:

"Strange and Beautiful"
The entire tracklist of "Still Life" in order
Entire tracklist of the first self-titled album in order minus "Gentle" and "Halfway to the Bottom"

How this guy doesn't have a US distributor is beyond me.

Thanks for the recommendation, and I'm really looking forward to more of Starsailor and an introduction to Travis.

I just can't get into Kent for some reason. I'm guessing english is his second language, because he overenunciates in a way that really annoys me. The song composition is pretty solid, but not terribly compelling.