The
Feeling
Join With Us
****
Radio
1 recently announced they were planning to fill their daytime
play list with soft rock bands, with this in mind it only seems
appropriate for The Feeling to return to the fold with another
album chock full of radio friendly rock.
Two
years ago, they emerged on with million-selling album Twelve
Stops and Home, to great praise and equal amounts of despise,
like them or not, their music was pretty much inescapable, being
played on radio stations and TV stations all across the country.
Anyone
expecting this to be the band’s death metal album will
be solely disappointed as this second effort Join With Us
is another of collection of Supertramp and ELO influenced melodies
guaranteed to light up the faces of the public. The up-tempo
‘I Thought It Was Over’ kicks off the proceedings,
being possibly the most positive song about the Berlin Wall
I have ever heard. They continue to please throughout the course
of the album, the title track is the album highlight, the chant
of “Join With Us” encouraging the public to enjoy
their music.
‘Won’t
Go Away’ is pretty much ‘Footloose’ if covered
by David Bowie and ‘Loneliness’ is just a great
pop track, which will no doubt result in further chart success
for the band. Unfortunately the glossy pop feel tends to wear
thin towards the end of the album and it settles in as being
pleasant background music.
I
was initially sceptical of The Feeling when they first cropped
up, however after enjoying their first album, I soon began to
join in with the nation’s love affair with the band (I’m
not afraid to admit it!).
Despite
being a great album, Join With Us doesn’t tackle
any ground that Twelve Stops and Home hasn’t
already covered, and they have just seemed to have become more
like the band’s they aspire to be.
It seems that soft rock has become what the public wants, over
the past few months bands such as the annoying but likable Hoosiers
and the god awful Scouting For Girls have become big successes,
so there’s no doubt that The Feeling will quite easily
regain their crown as the kings of daytime radio airplay.
Join
With Us may never place them on any cool lists, but I’m
guessing that when Radio 1 want to base their whole play list
around you, then you don’t really need to be bothered.
This is an enjoyable album and will definitely please fans of
the band, however in my opinion this is an album that need not
be brought as its very likely every song on it will be available
on radio 24 hours a day 7 days a week throughout the course
of the next year.
by
Guy Halford
