The Verve - Forth
The band most likely to have split up by the time you finish the review return with a decidedly schizophrenic and mostly underwhelming fourth LP
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Hailed by fans, critics, and even Mark E. Smith as their greatest long-player, Hex Enduction Hour receives another reissue.
Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
Veteran genre hopping Scots return with their poppiest album yet. It's got handclaps, it's got bells, and at times it's very, very funny.
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Rock royalty return with an arty title, a legendary, experimental producer and promises of an innovative new sound...but little else.
Various Artists - Independent's Day 08
A noble concept which ultimately fails to exceed the sum of its parts. Probably because it's got Feeder on it.
The Feeling - Join With Us
Jul 9, 2008
In 2006, The Feeling were the most played band on UK radio. Their four singles were played a total of 97,436 times that year, at an average of 267 plays per day. Success comes for a reason, and in The Feeling's case that reason is that a lot of people, like it or not, are really, really stupid. While the majority of folk felt like taking a power drill to their ear drums with each passing play, enough people enjoyed their work to enable them to make a second album. Thanks.
In the interests of objectivity, it is, of course, necessary to listen to their LP. Though, when the tracklisting includes titles such as 'Spare Me' and 'Won't Go Away', it is tempting to conclude that this stuff writes itself regardless. But, listen to it I have (so you don't have to), and my findings are, surprisingly, that The Feeling are still the most offensive of inoffensive acts, and that worse still, you probably won't be able to escape them this year either.
So, as a heads up, make sure that power drill is well charged. You probably already know that when you hear an intro that appears to be an attempt to merge the squelchy bassline of Blur's 'Girls and Boys' with the masters of the guitar sound, Roxette, that it is first single 'I Thought it Was Over'. For future reference, listen out for any song you hear that sounds like mock Barry White syrupy soul, and run. For it will be 'Without You', a schlock-lament for missing love (sample lyric: "I wonder what the time is in London?" Clue: probably the same as it is in Surrey).
Similarly, anything you hear that pulls off the previously thought impossible feat of resembling an over-produced E.L.O. will be 'Join With Us'. The most contrived lighters in the air piano ballad you will hear all year will be 'Spare Me'. And hear them you will, as they will undoubtedly be huge. God help us.
But fair's fair, there are positives to be found on Join With Us. For a start, The Feeling are not a band to duck out of exploring the world's pertinent questions. On 'Loneliness', a song about loneliness, Dan Gillespie Sells asks "Loneliness, ah ah ah, Loneliness, what is the point of it?" "Conor", which resembles an Andrew Lloyd Webber b-side, wistfully remarks that "You've got the life I want." Presumably, he means that Conor isn't in The Feeling.
Someone who reviewed it on Amazon (don't forget to click the affiliate link, kids) also claimed it had nice packaging. Personally speaking though, the longer The Feeling persist with this turgid, lumpen mess, the more the feeling persists that I wish they would fuck off and leave my ears, and my radio, be.
