|
Soft rock has been making an unlikely comeback of
late. Power ballads of the 1980s that were seemingly
dead have been resurrected for drive time
compilations, bands like ELO are experiencing a
sales renaissance, and a section of today's new bands
are ready to capitalize on this good fortune.
On The Feeling's home page, singer Dan Gillespie
Sells vindicates his band's approach to music,
stating, "There are no guilty pleasures any more.
You're allowed to like Andrew Gold, ELO,
Supertramp or 10cc. It's really
liberating".
With this off their chests his quintet The Feeling
set out to achieve their goal, updating their own
guilty pleasures for the summer of 2006. Add this to
an obvious songwriting talent, and you have a debut
album laden with hooks, quotable vocal snips and a few
overindulgences. It will then suddenly dawn on the
listener that while the band are unashamedly
derivative there's a gap in the market for what they
do, to the obvious delight of the UK's commercial
radio stations.
Singles Sewn and Fill My Little World are pop
nuggets. The former, tinged with a grey melancholy, is
made of the softest rock and recalls
Supertramp, though here in extended version
over elaborates at the end. Meanwhile the upward
looking latter is punchier and feels better, in a
manner bands like Semisonic used to do in the
late 1990s. Both make the transition from the studio
to middle of the brain with ease, and refuse to leave
once there.
It's clear the band have a soft spot for
harmonisation, Jeff Lynne style, of which Never
Be Lonely is a prime example. Love It When You Call
dips into this, and is possibly the most memorable
song on the album, Sells singing, "what's the
complication, it's only conversation".
Armed with these formidable pop weapons, The
Feeling also put plenty of emotion into their songs.
The tender Ros� is a case in point, Sells exploring
his feminine side over a single piano line. The song
gradually builds but doesn't overdo it, impressively
reigning in at the end. This isn't always the case,
and chief culprit Same Old Stuff yields to a hugely
inflated guitar solo, the song lost in the
meantime.
You'll gather from this that The Feeling aren't a
band for macho men who like to rock. But there's
something appealing about their brand of music with
its light, sunny harmonies and direct choruses. It's
music that adheres to the basic principles of pop, and
looks likely to be rewarded for doing so with a high
place in the charts this summer.
Comments
|
 |
|
INTERVIEW:
more 