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The Feeling - Join With Us (Island)

UK release date: 18 February 2008
4 stars
The Feeling - Join With Us

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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. Conor
10. This Time
11. Don't Make Me Sad
12. The Greatest Show On Earth
In our heart of hearts, we all know we shouldn't really like The Feeling. We know that they're music for mums and accountants' secretaries, a band whose destiny should have been to play covers sets at corporate parties in Dubai and Coventry. But, let's face it, it's just impossible to hate something so glorious.

The Feeling's saving grace is their utter unpretentiousness combined with the same resplendent love of a good pop tune championed by bands such as Abba and The Pet Shop Boys - with less showing off involved. In the middle of this, they've somehow managed to make sounding like Supertramp acceptable to people who wear skinny jeans so tight they can hardly breathe.

How this works at all is a mystery. How they manage to do it without being camp, too nerdy, too smug or too boring is a musical version of The Da Vinci Code. On second album Join With Us, they repeat their winning formula from Twelve Steps And Home, add stadium strings and transatlantic ambition, and come out sounding like Keane with credibility and a sense of humour. And, of course, with much better music.

This is all mixed in with the cheeky cleverness of the boy you know your mum will like when you bring him home. The disposability of lyrics such as "From the bottom to the top/I thought it was over but it's not" on the opening track plays to their strengths, pulling XfM and Heart to the same bosom as it sits them down with afternoon tea and cakes for a nice chat backstage at KOKO.

Elsewhere they swing effortlessly from bittersweet romance (Without You, Loneliness) to upbeat brassy danceability-cum-heavy metal riffage (Join With Us, Spare Me) to gentle pop-rock (Turn It Up, I Did It For Everyone) to simple chirpy cheeriness (Won't Go Away). You'll find luxurious stadium strings on Conor (possibly the album's best track), a killer piano intro on Don't Make Me Sad and then, at the end of the album, The Feeling's piece de resistance.

By finishing on the dark, moody and gloriously Victoriana-soaked The Greatest Show On Earth, Dan Gillespie Sells and pals could almost be accused of showing off, proving that they could 'do a Coldplay' any time they want, and take Chris Martin at his own game in the process. At the moment, they don't want to, they're too busy making our little lives light up. But as a warning for the future, they're showing what they're capable of. If this is their 'difficult' second album, then the world is their oyster, and they can take it any time they want.


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EXTERNAL LINKS
The Feeling



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