Feeder
The Singles

THE REVIEW

"When it comes to music, I feel good." In broad terms, this is how Nicholas Grant described his immense relationship with music.
So, after 5 albums and a serious risk of disbandment following the death of their drummer, "The Singles" comes out, a collection that definitively consecrates and gives due credit to the Anglo-Welsh band Feeder.

The collection doesn't follow a chronological order. You get excited, then calm down, realizing that time changes music, music changes the mood, mood changes people, and people change over time. This stark difference is noticeable between playful and cheerful tracks ("Seven Days In The Sun", "Just a Day") and more introspective and melancholic ones ("Feeling A Moment", "Comfort In Sound"), all divided by the same crucial event, when in January 2002, John Lee committed suicide; until then the drummer of the band and an original member alongside the aforementioned N. Grant (vocals, guitar) and the Japanese Taka Hirose (bass).

From the punk rock "Buck Rogers" reminiscent of early Green Day to the even fresher and "sunnier" "Seven Days In The Sun", where the band's cheerful spirit takes shape in the lyrics, the summery sound, and a video filled with beautiful drunk girls celebrating the good life.
The b-side "Just A Day" becomes a showcase piece, thanks mainly to its inclusion in the soundtrack of a PS2 game. Feeder practically ends all their concerts with this track, which enters rightfully into the collection (curiously excluding "Piece By Piece" and "Polythene Girl").

Everything is beautiful, everything is fine, everything is colorful, but the sudden and aforementioned death of J. Lee changes the band's fate, with former Skunk Anansie member Mark Richardson taking his place. Grant no longer has much desire to laugh, but still wants to be moved and to stir emotions. Thus, from the "Wonderwall"-esque notes of "Just The Way I'm Feeling" emerges perhaps Feeder's best musical expression. The memory is all for the late friend: "And I feel it's going down, Ten feet below the ground, I'm waiting for your healing hand... It's just the way I'm feeling", with the album cover (Comfort In Sound) depicting an angel flying in the sky, the wound is deep.
Comfort is sought in the one true passion of N. Grant's life, music. "Comfort In Sound" must be part of the collection, and the lyrics inevitably raise the question: "how can one heal from pain?". From a sonic perspective, besides sweet melodies, the loop base stands out interestingly, seemingly marked by the quiet, oriental presence of Taka Hirose, who nonetheless has a secondary role in the mixing of tracks.
After the storm, there is rebirth. "Feeling The Moment" and "Pushing The Senses" serve as an invitation to reflect on how to move forward, and slowly but surely, with the right and necessary slowness that only time can impart, several years later, the band finds the desire to smile, never setting aside the melancholic alternative/britpop path embarked on in 2002.

One of the main novelties of the collection is the 'Garbage-esque' "Shatter", which marks a new starting point for the band that will soon release its latest work (May 2008) with a title still unknown to me. The first single released is "Miss You", notice any particular reference? Life goes on, music too, people change; let's just give time to time. Feeder wanted it and got it, now it's their turn to move us again, for the umpteenth time.

* Thanks to a review by GrantNicholas, I noticed a clear similarity between the two bases.