Comfort In Sound

Attempted Recovery
by: peter naldrett - uk correspondent

Nine months after the band’s drummer committed suicide, Feeder have opened a new chapter in their history with the release of a positive, yet reflective, studio album.

A huge event to recover from, Feeder still desperately miss the influence of Jon Lee, who took his own life on January 7 at his Miami home. And new single "Come Back Around" seems to jointly mark his passing and Feeder’s longing to bring him back as frontman Grant Nicholas sings the heartfelt words “Come back around/ I miss you”. These are sentimental words in a powerful and evocative guitar-blazing single that gets the band onto top form again following previous radio high-points such as "Insomnia," "Buck Rogers" and "Yesterday Went Too Soon."

But much of Comfort In Sound loses such directness, succumbing to the lazy, dreary rock ballad that sounds too much like other stuff that has gone before and been better. The title track is as guilty as anything, with other poor efforts including "Forget About Tomorrow" and the opener, "Just the Way I’m Feeling." To balance it out, there is heavy rock to be found in "Godzilla" and "Helium," with beautiful tunes hiding away in "Find The Colour."

All in all, this is a mixed album that just falls short of being mixed up. But it’s good to see Feeder back in action, much as drummer Jon will be missed and still dominate much of the press that the band gets.

About the complicated new album, Grant Nicholas said: “There’s a lot of emotions on this record. There’s love and there’s tragedy. Certainly on half of this record there are a lot of lyrics that were definitely fuelled by emotions that I felt.” An emotional victory, then. But musically, the jury is still very much out. 31-Oct-2002 3:50 PM