Album Review : Feeder - Silent Cry

For long time fans of the Welsh band,their past 2 album directions have shown the band going to go the way of grandfathers rock - melancholy,mellow and universally thoughtful championed by bands such as Coldplay,Keane and Travis.Even the singer of Travis appeared as a backup singer in one of the single.

For 2 album,Feeder shows they are trying to regain their senses.The album "Comfort in Sound" comes out after the tragic suicide of their drummer and "Pushing The Senses" shows maturity without enough energy in it. Most of the fans are divided by the direction of where they are going,worrying about either Feeder going to be one of those bland rock band.

As the build up for the latest album, frontman Grant Nicholas inform the fans that the album will go back to their rockier roots.Promise should be kept and how does the album sound?

Yes,the energy is back,even though somewhat patchy in places but the direction is promising.Listening to the album opener and the first single "We Are The People," I got a little bit worried.This is like Foo Fighters "My Hero" sang by Dave Grohl sleepwalking.Even though the songs grows a bit on me still,it just a weird song and as a single,it was devastating.

But the second track,"Itsumo" start the ball rolling.The punkish "Miss You" and the relaxing riff of "Tracing Line" shows that a 40 year old Grant Nicholas does have some energy back in him.

"Silent Cry" is an uplifting songs,starting slow and gradually building up to an epic ending."Fires" is not an album track because it will not work on an album,but as a sing along festival anthem it will do nicely though."Head Held High" does remind me a bit of "Dry" but with a more epic structure and finish.

"Who's The Enemy" is an excellent track from Feeder,combining everything from their earlier material with the maturity of their latest sound.The final 3 track album closer,starting with "Into The Blue" is an excellent rock track,very raw and very aggressive.The moody "Guided by A Voice" is an excellent guide towards what will the new direction Feeder can go to.

And the album closer "Sonorous" is a very good Feeder tracks because it shows that Feeder are trying again to experiment with their music.The song,eventhough not as fullfilling as any Muse epic songs,it does show Feeder are not sticking with the same tried and true formula.This track does remind me of "Descend" from their first album (but very less metal sounding) in the experimentation.

So,what is the conclusion?

After 2 really dissapointing album,Feeder are back.Not as good as their first album and didn't have the brilliant fusion of Brit Pop/Punk-Pop of their second album but it is a welcome relief to know that they still got it,a really encouraging statement that they won't change to Snow Patrol(the new Snow Patrol,not the old and good one) or Coldplay.

Rating 7.5/10