The Feeling - Join With Us Review
Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 05.21.2008
UK soft-rockers return with their sophomore effort in an attempt to perfect the formula that worked so well before.
The Feeling are imerged in the UK indy seen in the latter months of 2005, but it wasn’t until the re-release of Fill My Little World that UK radio stations began to take notice of their fancy hooks and complicated melodies. Their debut album, Twelve Stops and Home, was packed with tremendous tracks, many of which had great success in the UK charts. Despite a disappointing debut in the US, the band have recently released their second album and hope to emulate the success of their debut.
Track listing:
1. I Thought It Was Over
2. Without You
3. Join With Us
4. Spare Me
5. Turn It Up
6. I Did It For Everyone
7. Won’t Go Away
8. Loneliness
9. Connor
10. This Time
11. Don’t Make Me Sad
12. The Greatest Show On Earth
Running time: 54mins06
Well the good news is, the band managed to not only emulate the success of Twelve Stops and Home, they’ve topped it; the band’s debut peaked at no. 2 in the album charts, while Join With Us spent one week at number, albeit with weaker first-week sales than its predecessor. But on the other side of the coin, the band hasn’t actually progressed very far musically and appear to be content with the formula they’ve got; and why wouldn’t they be? The band has a somewhat cult-like following and has carved out a niche for themselves in the market. There are plenty of people into their music and they do what they do very well.
Join With Us clearly has the same influences as the band’s debut, with the sound of 10CC and Electric Light Orchestra being pretty prominent, as well as the add nod to one of the greatest artists of all time, Queen. But while all the same, each song manages to provide the listener with something a little different, be it the sax solo in Won’t Go Away or the disgustingly catchy “ring ring beep beep” bridge of the title track. Now that I’ve mentioned it, it’s worth pointing out that Won’t Go Away is one of the album’s many highlight’s. The aforementioned sax solo is delicious and the harmonies in the chorus are nothing short of infectious, and the track is capped off by a fantastic violin outro.
Dan Gillespie (vocalist and lyricist) is possibly the only real factor that makes this album anything more than just another pop record from a band that’s unfortunately inspired the likes of Scouting For Girls. His simplistic lyrics are a stark contrast to complicated harmonies and arrangements and they’re basic enough to mean something without coming off as unfashionable. His melodies are solid if occasionally overly cute, but they’re the driving force behind many a beastly track on here. They make the ridiculously wet Without You and make turn it into a very enjoyable pop ballad. If there’s one criticism of the man I could make it would be in regards to his tendency to stay in his comfort zone and his refusal to use the range that he has shown he has (check out their debut for that).
What is less prominent on this effort is the vicious use of the guitar that allowed them to use the term soft rock for their last effort. Now they’re more or less a pop band with talent. But when they do make the most of the talented axeman they’ve got (Kevin Jeremiah), it works very well – Join With Us and Turn It Up being driven by great guitar work and more up-tempo bass lines. Thankfully though, the terrific piano work is still around and that, accompanied by Gillespie’s vocals, make the track Spare Me something of a Queen-esque gem. It’s one of many tracks that I could easily envision being a big success if released as a single. Indeed, there are hardly any tracks on this album that aren’t very radio-friendly and that’s due to this effort being a more polished version of Twelve Stops
The Feeling are trying to take the sound of a group of bands that nobody liked in the 70s and make it popular. But they’ve got bigger hooks than 10cc ever did, and bring to the table much more than Supertramp ever did, and yet they’re still compared to those bands and the like that nowadays would make many a music fan queasy. But they’re not really venturing anywhere their debut didn’t go, so I guess that means if you fell in love with Twelve Stops, you’ll be more than pleased with this collection of pop-rock delicacies.
But at least they are something different in comparison to most of the other stuff out there. I Thought It Was Over kicks the album of on a dance-rock edge, the likes of which Maroon 5 have perfected, and the orchestral arrangements make Turn It Up and Loneliness stand out tracks. And the production just gets bigger and bigger as the band have played around with every sort of instrument they could get their hands on and thrown it into the mix to make a predictably unpredictable record, much like their debut.
The bad news for most of you guys is, the album doesn’t have a US release date yet (that I’m aware of), but I would advice you get on the internet and pick it up if you can.
The 411: The Feeling have achieved what they set out to achieve with this record - perfect what they did with Twelve Stops and Home. Join With Us is bursting at the seems with big melody after big melody, carried by tremendous piano work and the occassional driving guitar rhythm. What this effort manages to do is take everything about pop music that you would have thought to be uncool, give it a new, slicker edge and make it infectious and enjoyable. Layered with solid vocals and massive hooks, this is an undeniably fun record if ultimately forgettable.
