The Band Hands up who remembers the type of musical cannon fodder that was being shot around locally and globally while they were teenagers? Your age may mean that music came from the Beatles or Beat-happening, Aretha or Arctic Monkeys but either way it sticks. As I was fifteen when Jon Lee took his life Feeder had a lot to do with the music of my youth, 'Comfort in Sound' conveniently came out three days before my sixteenth. I hate to sound self occupied but the only reason I mention this is I'm sure a lot of fellow Feeder fans will share this feeling and will have bought or be considering buying Silent Cry for this reason. For those people it is important that you read this first.
For those of you who aren't aware of who I speak I hope it wasn't too cramped under your rock! On a serious note, for you: Feeder are a wonderfully upbeat yet often meaningful band from whales, they are sometimes described (not by me) as punks but definitely don't expect any gritty anti-establishment sloganeering from these Welsh boys. Speaking of Welsh boys, the current line up is as follows:
Grant Nicholas - Vocalist / Guitarist.
Taka Hirose - Bass.
Mark Richardson -
Drums.
In case you're wondering, they're definitely worth a listen. 'Comfort in Sound' could well be a classic and 'The Singles' is full of easily accessible and catchy tunes. As for the latest of the albums, read on ...
The Album - What Feeder Say Nicholas told rock station XFM about the band's situation and how it would affect the new album's sound before it was released:
"Its sounding good, a lot rockier than our previous stuff,so it'll be interesting to see what people think of it…..It's good, I mean it's a bit more guitary than our last record, a bit more upbeat. I think people who liked some of our earlier stuff are gonna like it, but it's done in a slightly different way….there's a few quite poppy songs as well, I dunno, maybe having a young daughter's keeping me on the edge! [laughs] .....People always say that 'Oh, your songs are all so sad and depressing and always look on the past', but its not really it's just about general day-to-day stuff. I think people often look into things, because of our past, and think I'm always writing about that, and it isn't always the case."
The Album - What I Say After sixteen years on the go the band have created for themselves a hell of a reputation to live up to. In the beginning they had a fairly brash sound, even being compared to 'the Pixies' and 'Smashing Pumpkins' which may have been a bit extreme in my opinion. However then the slide started, while many will agree with me that while 'Pushing the Senses' was a fairly good album it utterly failed to recapture that 'former glory' that a lot of bands talk of. The question is: Did 'Silent Cry' push the buttons that it's precursor didn't? Could it approach the memorability of their two big albums?
I wont keep you in suspense, the long and short of it is: No. Of course Feeder fans will recognise the rhythm and explosiveness at the core of the songs and a couple of the songs even show the addictive side of the band that lead to sales in the millions. But not enough of the album has the special buzz or originality about to make it anything special most songs almost feel like dull repetitions of earlier songs. As I've already said the fans will be familiar but no band can get on without a little creative spark and guess what is missing here; they mention a few paragraphs above that they took inspiration from all through their history. But thats pretty much all they've done. The other side of this coin is that there's powerful continuity with no song feeling out of place, coupled with a rock-imbued bouncyness you can almost jump around waving your arms like a maniac completely oblivious to what I have just said ... Almost.
The title of most bounce inducing song on the album is shared between two songs: 'Silent Cry' and 'Fires' with the nostalgic 'Fires' just pipping 'Silent Cry' to the post and providing a good reminder of the early days in the process. This flitting between the old (and frankly a little exhausted) and the new (which hasn't yet been made to work) never quite produces anything good from either and is stuck constantly in limbo. With the exception that is of 'Into the Blue', which is original if a bit of a failure on the whole, it sounds a little like tacky dance indie. It's an entertaining change of pace nonetheless. Which is more than can be said for 'Miss You', which really got me going until I listened to (earlier Feeder song) 'Just a Day', after careful examination with a couple of my friends they both proved to be almost the same song released twice. This laziness and lack of respect for the fans definitely knocks a point off the final score despite high quality musicianeering and a good combination of pounding speed and smooth, gentle edges.
May I humbly suggest the marvellous Biffy Clyro as an alternative, I know a few people maybe unhappy with this.
If you want more, heres the album discography:
Polythene
Yesterday Went Too Soon
Echo Park - Platinum album and one of the two best.
Comfort in Sound - This was the first written without original drummer Jon Lee, also platinum and one of the two best.
Pushing the Senses
Silent Cry - Also Platinum
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Feeder have long been the supply teacher of Brit-rock, the Scott Mills of pop-punk if you ... more
like--unremarkable yet undeniably able, and somehow proficient or lucky enough to exist beneath the radar, shrewdly outlasting most of their contemporaries. The s...
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Advantages: itsumo, miss you, tracing lines, whos the enemy, into the blue, guided by the voice. Disadvantages: A few songs felt like they didn't belong, overall not as good as some older albums.
Tcats2 18.06.2008 (18.06.2008)
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