Hey, Show Some Love! You Ain’t so Tough!

British The Feeling really impressed me with their debut album Twelve Stops and Home (2006). I started listening to it for some reason.. I guess I wanted to check out some new pop that came out that year. A couple of listens later I was hooked and unable to stop listening to this beautiful pop piece that seemed to fit my summer and early autumn perfectly with its genuine happiness and melancholy. Something about the whole of this music sounded very familiar, but it wasn’t really power pop. It was 21st century soft rock.

These songs really are something! The extremely well produced and chirpy vocals on I Want You Now are irresistible. All in all, it’s an exceptionally happy and fresh song. The same is mostly true of Never Be Lonely and Fill My Little World. The latter is probably my favourite song from this album. You can’t go wrong with its happy and sad feel, and those extremely sweet vocals.

There’s basically nothing wrong with this album. All songs might not cause enormous bursts of euphoria, but there certainly are no fillers. Kettle’s on is charming, Anyone is beautifully melancholic, Strange continues being melancholic, and also deals with some good thoughts about not being ashamed of oneself. Same Old Stuff and Helicopter are awesome. In the end of the song, Helicopter turns into something complete different – sounds like Radiohead ’95, very good, I’d say! Blue Piccadilly ends the album perfectly. Sounds like Queen/Jellyfish (I’m not complaining, not at all!)

The new album (Join With Us, 2008) that recently came out also appears to be very good. The Feeling’s sound has become a bit bigger and warmer, and now includes violins. Those beautiful piano patterns take control in some songs, again. It’s also a very strong album: no particularly weak tracks on it. Without You was love at first hearing. The beautiful yearning for London is stunning and heartfelt. Dan Gillespie Sells is also a great singer with a friendly and warm voice.

The first single, I Thought It Was Over, is obviously great, and despite its disco beat it really sounds different from that 2000s “new wave” disco pop. At this moment, some of my other favourite songs include Turn It Up, and Won't Go Away.

The Feeling has been very successful. The first album peaked at #2 and Join with Us was already #1. Their music has obviously got some serious airplay (in 2006, their songs were played in the UK radios once in every five minutes!). Good for them, it’s always nice when hard work is rewarded.

The Feeling official Website