He's got CD player...player...play er..player... (Echo Park - Feeder)

Member Name: dreamerz

Product:	Echo Park - Feeder
Date:	22/05/01 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Singlaong, bounce along rock at its finest

Disadvantages: Production at times a little overpowering

It’s nice watching someone grow up in public. Grant Nicholas, despite now pushing 30 has spent the last few years doing that musically. Beginning with 1997s ‘Swim’ EP, Feeder have been gradually blossoming from a band with potential to great one in their own right. Whilst ‘Polythene’ at times seemed to have aped the Smashing Pumpkins most overblown moments a little too closely, and ‘Yesterday Came Too Soon’ was trying a little too hard to be commercial, with ‘Echo Park’ Feeder have finally found there own voice.

And a very loud voice it is to. Announcing itself like a clarion call to those dispossessed by chart pop, ‘Buck Rogers’ crashed straight into the top 5 earlier this year. The lyrics may be completely inane, “He’s got a brand new car/ Looks like a Jaguar,” (so that’d be a Jaguar then) and the format little more then another reworking of the classic quiet-loud formula (albeit with far more loud then quiet), but its incredibly fun. Instantly catchy, with a thundering chorus perfect for the indie disco (or the bedroom floor if you prefer). There are so many clever little touches, such as the way the main guitar riff bulldozes its way on the line “Its got a CD player” before exploding into an even louder wave of a chorus, with Nicholas’ vocals surfing smoothly on top. This, my friends, is true genius.

Second single, ‘Seven Days in the Sun’, is a close sister of ‘Buck Rogers’, the guitar splutters all over the mix, as Nicholas sneers a slightly snotty vocal. It is perhaps a little derivative, but contains enough unique moments; the stop start nature of the guitars in the chorus, the way Nicholas’ voice seems to fly around the room during the middle eight, to keep the sound fresh.

Thankfully Feeder have more then the one idea up their sleeves. ‘We Can’t Rewind’, has a gentle
mid paced melody, which is suddenly re-invented by the jagged guitars that enter in the chorus. ‘Under the Weather’ meanwhile opens with a maelstrom of guitar and vocal fragments, before Grant Nicholas’ voice enters highly distorted. The whole song seems to be making an attempt to spin wildly out of control, yet the band keep it together with yet another memorable chorus.

‘Tell All Your Friends’, meanwhile begins with a bass line filched from the Pixies and seems to meander along unimpressively, before suddenly catching fire as a chiming guitar enters the mix and the beat becomes consistent. The song flicks between these two styles building into a perfect bubble gum hook that resides in the refrain as Nicholas harmonises sweetly with himself and then screams as his guitar makes a bid to drown him out.

On their last album, Feeder showed they were capable of some excellent slow tracks as well as more frenetic stuff. This aptitude is more then adequately displayed on a pair of ballads, ‘Oxygen’ and ‘Satellite News’. ‘Oxygen’, is bleak with a dark shadowy guitar line and is reminiscent of some of Feeder's earliest week. However, this time a distorted rhythm guitar appears at the 40 second mark and transforms the song into a shimmering delight, this contrast between the dark and light shows a lightness of touch that has previously eluded the band. The song builds to a tremendous crescendo, with a crazy cut up guitar solo and an epic final refrain.

‘Satellite News’ is if anything even better. A gentler, far less claustrophobic track then anything else on the album. Nicholas voice drifts through the mix, before being joined by a chiming music box sounding guitar which builds to a soaring chorus which flies over a sea of bubbling electronica.

The production of the album, by infamous Pixies knob twiddler (ahem) Gil Norton is largely flawless and moder
n, although occasionally such as on ‘Piece by Piece’ it threatens to swap the music, with pointless complete stop/starts. Nevertheless it is only on ‘Choke’ that Feeder let the quality slip, with a growling noisy beast which lacks the memorable melodies that dominate the rest of the album.

With ‘Echo Park’ Feeder have finally delivered the excellent album they have long threatened. With nu-metal currently dominating the chart Feeder area refreshing blast of bubblegum rock.

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