Feeder: Call Out

So, Feeder are ‘back’! Not that they ever physically went away…

Call Out, the first single from new album Renegades, has the band’s trademark infectious chorus that sticks in your head even after only one listen. It is a three minute slice of anthemic pop that will undoubtedly have fans pogoing furiously around the country.

It is claimed that the new material sees the band return to their roots but, based on the evidence of this single alone without having heard Renegades, it would appear that those roots only reach back as far as Echo Park and Comfort in Sound.

The song itself recognises the fact that there may never be a return to the Swim / Polythene / Yesterday Went Too Soon days that always felt like Feeder at their most fresh, powerful and relevant; ‘things aren’t quite the same this time around.’

It is hard to know what to make of the sleeve notes which state; ‘you should play this, it’s brilliant’, and the self-referential chorus lyric; ‘if you want to hear this song you just call out our name’, from a band that are usually more modest and poignant.

Whether the optimist accepts that this a bit of unashamedly good pop or the pessimistic hears something which will never live up to those early days of promise, without Jon Lee this is definitely a different Feeder.

You have to wonder whether that band which bounced around in orange boiler suits living up to their billing as ‘the new Smashing Pumpkins’ will ever fully be ‘back’ ever again.

Glitter Bitch