Join with The Feeling
Written: Feb 22 '09
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: solid power pop with fine retro influences
Cons: the music can sound a little derivative at times
The Bottom Line: It's high time that the British record labels stop hoarding the sophomore release from The Feeling and let the rest of the world hear some of this solid power pop.
|
|
|
| DrFaustus's Full Review: Join with Us [single] by The Feeling |
The British do some truly incomprehensible things. They add the letter U into all sort of words where it has no business. They call "fries" "chips," and they call "chips" "crisps." They drive on the wrong side of the road, and they invent bizarre rhyming slang where "titfer" means "hat" and "tom" means "jewelry." And that's just scratching the surface of bizarre British behavior.
But one British tradition does make much more sense than the way things are done elsewhere. American record labels have long tended to promote growing bands by releasing only full-length, full-price albums even when there may only be one or two tracks with any sort of widespread appeal. The British record labels, on the other hand, often pump out two or three CD singles to accompany a new full-length album. And these aren't cheap cash-in disks with one track on them. They're bundles with b-sides, demos, and cover songs unavailable elsewhere, making them a fantastic marketing tool - they're inexpensive enough that someone who doesn't know the band yet can pick one up on the strength of the big radio single without having to feel cheated if they don't like the rest, and they're also a must-buy for serious fans of the band who need to own the complete back catalog.
Perhaps if the RIAA took a page from the British playbook, music fans might not be flocking to internet downloads in droves.
But before I wander too far off track, let's regroup and take a look at the single for Join with Us from The Feeling, one of those British bands who benefit from the proliferation of singles across the Atlantic. Power pop aficionados may remember the band from their 2006 album Twelve Stops and Home which produced some Supertramp-esque songs like Never Be Lonely and Sewn. This new single (taken from the group's sophomore album of the same name) finds the London quintet channeling the spirit of ELO this time around to create some complex but ultimately fulfilling orchestral pop goodness.
Following the blueprints set forth by Jeff Lynne, Join with Us piles on layer after layer of slickly produced, sugary pop hooks - saxes and trumpets, synthesized harpsichord, guitars both electric and acoustic, echoey drum sets, and of course, multi-tracked vocals - to create a sumptuous sonic collage. Like Lynne's lyrics, the lines here are filled with cheap pop psychology:
♬ the world is in your hands
the world is in your hands
the world belongs to those of us who still believe we can
and it matters what you do
though they all look down on you
'cause it's better that you've come from nothing,
than nothing comes from you ♬
but everything is sung with such heartfelt conviction that it's difficult to find fault. And by the end when the lyrics give way to a repeated chorus of "ring-ring, beep-beep, uh-huh" it's nearly impossible not to get swept up in singing along.
Some may find the song a bit derivative, and taken out of the context of the full album release Join with Us, it's an argument that has some merit. We have to give the band credit for drawing from some fantastic source material, though.
Rounding out the single for Join with Us are a pair of b-sides the band hasn't released on any of their other albums. The band covers Hall and Oates' classic She's Gone, faithfully clinging to the smooth blue-eyed soul of the original with little new added to the song besides a heavy synth solo. Afterwards, the band wraps up the disk with the glammed-up new wave of their own song Spitting Feathers, which blends the crisp synth sounds of Manfed Mann's cover of Blinded by the Light with the growling guitar sound of Big Star, Cheap Trick, T. Rex, and countless other big names in rock from the seventies. It's a mixture that doesn't quite come off successfully, but again, the band's energy and enthusiasm are what really sell the song.
Even though the British branch of Universal Records has been pushing The Feeling and their latest album over in England (Join with Us is the fourth single released in support of the album, after I Thought It Was Over, Without You and Turn It Up), the full album still hasn't been released in America (let alone any of those singles). It's a shame, since we're missing out on the growth of a great band with a solid future ahead of it. Is their destiny to be limited to just another of England's best-kept secrets? Those of us who've been fortunate enough to hear the music from their sophomore release certainly hope not.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
DrFaustus
|
 in Music |
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: the Lake Michigan shoreline
Reviews written: 474
Trusted by: 287 members
About Me:
I can't help being a big fan of the esoteric and the obscure
|
|
|
![Join with Us [single] by The Feeling](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/e0/37/59/39338496-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.