DrFaustus's Full Review: Twelve Stops and Home * by The Feeling
You know what? I really like Supertramp. I'm not ashamed to admit it. And I'm willing to bet you like Supertramp, too. Doesn't matter if you're a rock fan or a hip hop aficionado, a jazz cat or a country lover. There's something deep down that appreciates the likes of Goodbye Stranger, Breakfast in America, Take the Long Way Home, and Give a Little Bit. I'm not saying that you have be absolutely gaga for the group, just that anyone who claims to actively dislike the group is mean and spiteful, and probably a bit of a liar.
Why is it that Supertramp is a group that absolutely everyone seems to have a soft spot for? It can't be because they're cool. Cool bands are flashy and flamboyant, with larger-than-life personalities that make us wish we could live their lives for just one moment. I don't get that feeling from Supertramp. They feel more like an neighbor who lends you his gas grill every once in a while or that guy in the next cubicle over at work whose wife makes muffins to share with the whole office once a month. Really nice guys, but certainly not cool.
At the same time, no one could say that Supertramp in uncool, either. Bands like Devo, They Might Be Giants, and Barenaked ladies have elevated the anti-cool aesthetic to a new level, rejecting mainstream and embracing the geeky fringe element.
It stands to reason, then, that Supertramp exists in some sort of parallel world where the quality of cool simply doesn't exist. There's no drive for their music to cozy up to the in crowd, and no rejection of the mainstream. Completely divorced from the sliding scale of cool, the pure pop hooks and the sublime arrangements built around pianos and guitars, both electric and acoustic, shine through without any interference.
Before I ramble on too much here, yes, I do realize that I seem to be veering off topic. We're not here to discuss Supertramp today, at least not directly. British newcomers The Feeling are our focus de jour, and each time I listen to their debut album, Twelve Stops and Home, I'm reminded of everything I love about Supertramp, in more ways than one.
Delicious, sugary pop hooks? Check. Deceptively simple yet cheeky lyrics? Check. A sly, subversive, cheeky sense of humor? Check. Timeless, universal appeal? Check. The Feeling may be new to the music scene, but they've already mastered all the tricks of pure, unadulterated pop pleasure.
Take Fill My Little World as an example. Built around a solid, stomping rhythm on the piano with solid electric guitars rounding out the chorus and mellow acoustic guitars filling in the verses, the song mixes pure energy with a more fleeting quality of, oh, let's call it spunkiness. Lyrically it may be a fluff piece on the eternal pop subject of love, but there's enough surprises built into the structure and flow of the rhymes to make everything sound fresh. Consider our opening lines:
♬ I had a dream we went away
left the city for a day
you took me southwards on a plane
and showed me Spain or somewhere... ♬
The band's knack with for straightforwardly shimmery, upbeat pop gems in uncanny. The glistening synthesizer pop of I Love It When You Call. The down-tempo acoustic guitar and bouncy electric bass that balances the softer and harder sides of pop music. The giddy, sugary, Saturday-morning-cartoon vibe of I Want You Now with its hooo ooo ooo's, yeah yeah yeah's, and ba ba da's to round out the vocal palatte. The infectious sing-along pub anthem of Sewn. It's all the pop music equivalent of fluffy, empty calories, but no means is the music disposable.
But man does not live by sugar alone, and The Feeling nourish us on the smoother ballad side of the menu. We get a wistful slice of world-weariness in the mid-tempo Anyone, filled with somber diminished chord arrangements, and the quiet, romantic piano introspection of Rosé, played with a masterful grasp of all the cabaret act nuances with none of the maudlin clichés. There's even the slow burning stadium anthem of Same Old Stuff to round out the more languid side of the music.
And just like with all the great pop bands that have transcended their time, there are songs that defy categorization and take on a life all their own, creating something truly unique. Helicopter isn't necessarily the flashiest, most attention-grabbing track on the album, but it's like anything anyone else out there and has a subversive charm that gets into your ears and won't let go. Odd little electronic beeps and blurts crop up occasionally amongst the sinister sounding piano arrangement, creating a sense of obsessive paranoia that's backed up by the song's seemingly scatterbrained, stream-of-consciousness lyrics:
♬ my piano's out of tune, I wish it wasn't
I wish that you were mine
I wish that my heart was stronger
my piano's out of tune, I wish it wasn't
I wish we had more time
I wish that my world was softer
and I want a helicopter ♬
And yes, part of the sinister feel to the music here is because the piano is slightly out of tune - not enough to ruin the sound, but enough to make us feel just a bit ill at ease. There's an intriguing hint of madness to the music, and it all comes to hear with a solid rock coda to the song, marking the album's most intense musical peak.
Supertramp, along with plenty of other great pop acts who've existed completely outside of the coolness spectrum like Ben Folds, ELO, Squeeze, Jellyfish, and XTC, have never exactly dominated the charts, but they've never grown stale. Their particular brand of pure pop has not only kept the fans loyal for years, but has also continued to win over new listeners as the years go by. Fans of any of those bands will feel right at home with Twelve Stops and Home. It's tailor made for fans of timeless pop who are tired of all the flavor-of-the-month acts that spring up like unwanted weeds these days.
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