Album: The Feeling

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Ironic, n'est-ce pas, that a band as insipid as The Feeling can arouse such strong... well, feelings. I know people who swear by them; my own reaction is to swear at them. So, what's this threatening to upset all my preconceptions? "I Thought It Was Over", a new wave electro-pop tune with Darkness-style double-tracked guitar solos, and easily the best thing The Feeling have ever recorded. It isn't long, though, before Dan Gillespie Sells and his Chris Moyles-endorsed Sussex boys settle into their comfort zone. "Without You" is their "Super Trouper"; "Don't Make Me Sad" sounds like a horn-parping Bowie ballad from 1974, and the rest of the time it's a relentless Supertramp/Gilbert O'Sullivan/Andrew Gold vibe. The Feeling aren't the first band to draw upon Seventies MOR, and with Palladium on the rise, they clearly aren't the last. They aren't even the most successful (hello, Scissor Sisters). And they certainly don't bring any interesting new twist to the genre. But they're here, and they're ubiquitous. And consequently, any fleeting feelings of this-is-quite-nice are quickly dispelled by the knowledge that every song on this album will be all over every channel besides Radio 3 and the pirates next time you're in the car.

Download this: It doesn't sound like The Feeling: 'I Thought It Was Over'