Twelve Stops and Home - The Feeling Album Review

Twelve Stops and Home - The Feeling Album Review

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Album Review

Much like a game of football, this is an album of two halves (and not in the LP sense – in fact, I don’t think it’s out on vinyl). A comparison can be made with this year’s UEFA Champions League final, with the first half belonging to Arsenal (The Feeling), but with the unrelenting pressure and the fact that they’re a man down (not that the Feeling had to lose a guy for the last few tracks) finally taking it’s toll, and them finally running out of steam.

I was turned onto this West Sussex based five piece (wouldn’t that make them a half-strength Brighton Hove Albion?) after the BBC Radio 1 advert for Chris Moyles/ Vernon Kay shows – with the background music being provided by the Feeling – ‘Fill My Little World’. You remember the one – it screened about two months back, and featured Chris, Vernon + others moving in a LED-meter-type way to the beat of the music?

After discovering Chris Moyles’ myspace site, I then discovered The Feeling’s one, which had samples of ‘Sewn’, ‘Fill My Little World’ and ‘Never be Lonely’ – all of them great tracks. Naturally I added them to the AllGigs database and then waited two months until the album came out, so it is probably fair to say there was quite a bit of anticipation on my part.

The opening track ‘I Want You Now’ (nothing to do with the Depeche Mode song of the same name, by the way), is bright and breezy and a little bit cheesy (no, that’s not my attempt at a lyric). Cheesy is fair enough, given that The Feeling proudly proclaim themselves as mining a rich seam of 70s soft rock with influences including Supertramp, 10CC, ELO and the Carpenters – a little cheese is inevitable as a garnish (much the same can be said about certain mountainous regions of France, by the way).

Next-up comes the poptastic song ‘Never be Lonely’, which has a lovely Supertramp-esque Rhodes chord underpinning an effected vocal on each bridge, not to mention a tasty drum fill at the end of each chorus. The structure and harmonies on this song are spot on. ‘Fill my Little World’ continues the momentum with the catchiest of guitar/ piano riffs I’ve heard for a while. Lyrically, lots of interest is there as you follow the unrequited love of a smitten guy – the object of whose desire is blissfully unaware/ uninterested in any advances. 'Kettle’s on' reduces the tempo a tad, but keeps up the same quirky lyrics, all of which are delivered with an unashamedly – slightly cockney - English accent throughout.

‘Sewn’ continues the melodic/ harmonious onslaught, with the line:
’Cos you've got my heart in a headlock
You stopped the blood and made my head soft

All accompanied with some na-na-ing, which kept the song in the UK charts for 13 weeks – with 7 being the peak position. In fact, on my recent holiday in France, you’d have sworn the track had hit the top spot give then number of times it was played each day on ‘Europe 2’.

The remainder of the tracks (the “second half”) don't quite manage to reach the same heights as the preceding tracks - with the exception of 'Strange' - which is a lovely track. 'I Love it when you Call' possibly over-does the amount of cheese dished-up, sounding a bit like a Queen cliche.

Current single 'Fill my Little World' is currently in the top 20 UK singles chart and top 10 UK download chart.

In summary then, a really good debut album – with some moments of brilliance - and one that will no doubt find it's way back in my CD player, and will inevitably grow on me more in time.

Daniel O'Connell

Gigs

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