The Feeling: 'I Thought It Was Over'

To note that The Feeling polarise opinion is like saying Britney's lacking a bit of direction at the moment. Twelve Stops and Home, their debut album, found its way into 800,000 British homes, but as many again sneered at it for being "boring", "derivative" and, worst of all, "soft rock". 'I Thought It Was Over', the lead single from their follow-up disc, Join With Us, is likely to widen the divide.

Springing from that most unfashionable of musical sub-genres, early eighties dance-rock, it's a taste-shunning riot of tinny synths, cock rock guitar riffs and 'Radio Ga Ga' drum breaks. The references to the fall of the Berlin Wall tend towards crassness - "Another year and the job was done, the old republic was dead and gone" sounds like an excerpt from a damning GSCE examiner's report – but, wrapped in a package this infectious, it's hard to hold a grudge. The Feeling's knack for crafting big, glorious pop hooks hasn't deserted them, and, as ever, Dan Gillespie-Sells has a way of making ordinary sentiments sound very moving indeed.


> Click here for our review of The Feeling's Join With Us album