Is It Any Wonder?

Tim Rice-Oxley says of this song in Q Magazine October 2007: "It articulates something that a lot of people have felt over the last few years: being powerless and totally misrepresented."

Under The Iron Sea was Keane's second major-label album. They started recording it in April 2005 while they were still on tour. "Is It Any Wonder?" was the lead single, and it helped the album hit #1 in the UK, just like their previous effort, Hopes And Fears. Keane got very popular very fast: After playing pubs for a few years, they were signed to an indie label and released "Everybody's Changing" in 2003. Island Records then signed the band and gave them a big promotional push.

This deceptively upbeat tune was inspired by Keane's feelings of unease surrounding the War on Terror that George W. Bush, aided by US allies like the band's native UK, launched after 9/11. "It's probably the one song on the record that most expresses our dismay and confusion about what it means to be a British citizen, in terms of what our society's contributing to the world at large," Rice-Oxley told Rolling Stone in 2006. "It's very hard to make sense of why Britain feels it needs to sign up with George Bush's attacks on Iraq and the whole Afghanistan thing. It feels like there's a whole lot of trouble brewing up over Iran, and you just don't know where it's going to end. On a personal level, for people of our age, it's really unsettling."