Music
The Feeling: 'Join With Us'
Released on Monday, Feb 18 2008
Published Tuesday, Feb 12 2008, 13:03 GMT | By Nick Levine | 8 comments
But, then again, nothing about The Feeling is supposed to be cool. Join With Us betrays the same perennially popular - but quintessentially naff - influences as its predecessor, with nods to ELO, 10cc and Queen coming in the first four songs. The dance-rock swagger of lead single 'I Thought It Was Over' is deceptive, for elsewhere Join With Us is essentially a more expensive, slightly softer version of Twelve Stops And Home. 'Without You' and 'This Time' benefit from some gorgeous orchestral arrangements, and those faintly ridiculous harmonies are a little more prevalent this time around, but nothing here rocks as bracingly as 'Helicopter', the toughest track from their debut.
Like Twelve Stops, whose hook-laden, catchy-as-flypaper tunes helped The Feeling to become the most played act on British radio in 2006, Join With Us is an embarrassment of potential hit singles. 'Turn It Up', a Queen-style romp propelled by gleeful harmonies, will sound fantastic over the airwaves, as will 'Without You', a woozy, string-laden ballad with a melody you feel you've known forever. Best of all is the melodramatic, lavishly-arranged 'This Time', which conjures up images of The Carpenters settling down to record a big, blousy power ballad after a few too many white wine spritzers.
However, thanks to Dan Gillespie Sells, the band's lead singer and lyricist, Join With Us never slips into mere pastiche. An almost painfully English fellow - "They're boring the hell out of me!" he exclaims at one point - his songs are filled with loneliness ('Without You', 'Loneliness'), insecurity ('Connor', 'Spare Me') and an unfaltering belief in the power of love ('The Greatest Show On Earth'). Though his yearning vocals are sometimes a little too cute, his honest, direct lyrics are the band's trump card, ensuring that Join With Us is blessed with heart as well as hooks. Who else could turn the muscle-flexing balladry of 'Spare Me' into something so anxious and doubt-ridden?
Just occasionally, The Feeling's taste for the absurd is too much to stomach. 'Won't Go Away' is an unholy marriage of David Bowie's 'Modern Love' and Katrina & The Waves' 'Walking On Sunshine', while the "ring ring beep beep" hook in 'Join With Us' is as far from sexy as pop music gets in 2008. Still, these are minor quibbles. So confident and well-realised is this sophomore album, in fact, that it seems to pose a challenge to the naysayers: Join With Us?
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In my oppinion, the feeling are the best band around & they can do no wrong :) I have loved them for two years & will continue to do so forever.... Join with us is just as lovely as twelve stops & home but they're both very different albums :) They're also amazing live & the songs from join with us dont disappoint :D album of the year for me & definitely deserved number one =] words cannot describe how much i love these guys....a simply splendid band
Yeah..heard it all before..on our albums, tee-hee ;-)
The Feeling are the best and i lurrv this album sooooooooooooooooooooo much! <3
Fans of the feeling (like me) will love it, but if twelve stops wasn't your cup of tea, then steer well clear-because this album will have you singing along in no time! Oh, and the ring ring beep beep bit rocks!!!
Hooks? Balladry? Unholy marriages? Labels are all very well and good but the overall product is what counts with music. This is the best 'uncool' album since their last. They may be 14 years old but they're outstanding.
In 2006 Twelve Stops and Home was my favorite album of the year displacing teh album i'd assuemd woudl be (teh new Cat Stevens ALbum) I can seeo Joing WIth Us doing teh same with ne new Billy Bragg album SO The Feeling may be my guilty pleasure but boy what a pleasure they are. Wonderful
Hmm... it's not their best album, but I'm sure it will grow on me.
A lot of stuff mentioned in this review is 100% true. However, I think most comments in general made against this band just target their image, because it's different. Yes, actually different, not fashionably indie-different. I think most people just dis The Feeling because they don't want to be unfashionable. It's so much easier to be cool when you're crushing on Pete Doherty than if you're crushing on Dan Gillespie Sells. Personally, I LOVE the album 'Join With Us'. It is loneliness and heartbreak sung with adorable, cute little melodies that force you into singing along- yet somehow the emotions are still oh-so believable. How does the man do it?? My favourite thing about Dan Gillespie Sells' songwriting are the little bits in songs that make you cringe, like 'ring ring beep beep' and, from their first album, 'Danny boy, don't be afraid, to shake that ass and misbehave'. It is definately VERY far from sexy, but by god, don't you just love it? :D The Feeling's unashamed lack of coolness shows us that we can be whoever the hell we want to be, that other peoples' opinions don't really matter as much as we think. Wouldn't a world without fashion be better? Art wouldn't be so restricted. So critics- stop being so snobby. Come on. This is the music of true nonconformity- so JOIN WITH US!