Pushing the Senses

Pushing the Senses is the fifth album by British rock band Feeder. It was released by Echo Records on January 31, 2005 in the United Kingdom, and was the group's first album since 2001's Echo Park to receive mixed reviews. Most critics criticised the bands approach to what was described as Keane and Coldplay style music, and "departing" from their trademark sound heard on their first three albums, while Q Magazine stated that the album could "finally establish" the band as "major league players". Pushing the Senses was a top five album in Feeder's native United Kingdom, and its lead single "Tumble and Fall" was a top five single. In the Republic of Ireland the album was released the previous week, peaking in in the top twenty. This made the album Feeder's most sucsessful in terms of peak chart positions.

The album represented a similar musical style as seen on 2002's Comfort in Sound, and featured more songs written on a piano and also had as described by frontman Grant Nicholas as more of an "organic" sound than that of the latter. Inspirations were that of John Lennon within some of the songwriting. Pushing the Senses received a Pop Factory award in 2005 for "Best Album". In January 2005, the album was certified gold in the UK, and has sold 250,000 copies in Europe as of mid-2005.

1 Recording and production
2 Critical response
3 Songs
4 Chart performance and sales
5 Track listing
- 5.1 DVD tracks and footage
6 Charts
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Recording and production

Pushing the Senses contains music in the same rock styles featured on Feeder's 2002 album Comfort in Sound, but it focuses more on pianos, rather than a string orchestra.^[1] Only "Pain on Pain" on the album mainly used strings, including samples from a mellotron.^[2] Frontman Grant Nicholas said he didn't think the album needed them.^[1] He also called the album's the bands "Recovery album" as he felt he was more at ease writing the songs than he was with Comfort in Sound, after the loss of their drummer Jon Lee,^[3] and said that he was inspired by artists such as John Lennon within the piano playing, and writing the songs.^[2]

Feeder and Gil Norton recorded the bulk of Pushing the Senses in 2004 at Abbey Road Studios, London, England — the same place The Beatles famously recorded the album of the same name. Ken Nelson recorded "Frequency" in Liverpool with the band, as Grant felt he could capture the organic sound.^[2] Grant recorded the piano first with the rest of the track built around it.^[2] Grant said the album as a whole does have a retro sound to it, but didn't want to "sound too retro".^[2] The title track was one of the first songs Grant wrote for the album in 2003, and was at first written on a piano before being translated to guitar,^[1]^[2] and also said that he could have easilly recorded the song with strings.^[1]^[3] "Tumble and Fall", which became the album's first single, seen Grant describe the recording process as "old fashioned", with bass player Taka Hirose saying that the band should include it on the album.^[3] The song was recorded with the vocal and an acoustic guitar first, and then the other parts of the music built around it.^[1]^[2]^[3]

In an interview with the bands official website Feederweb, Grant explained that "Feeling a Moment", was played back with the intro playing backwards, in which he explained:- "This was one of the first songs written for the album. I actually started recording that song in the studio on my own at the Crypt. The song was written at home, as soon as I had that intro, the vocal “woo who” bit – what ever you want to call it – that was a really important hook for the song. It starts off backwards, like the tracks being turned backwards and then it kicks into the intro. I think it is a more typical Feeder track, we felt it was a powerful start to the album. Lyrically, its trying to put your self in somebody’s mind – in somebody’s head space, that could be somebody close to you or whatever – trying to kind of imagine how they feel about either you or about how they see things or how they feel about the world, wondering whether they have similar feelings to yourself. It’s quite hard to explain, but that’s where it’s coming from".^[1] In a DVD packaged with limited quantities of the album, Grant is seen playing a piano during the recording sessions, and once said that he don't rate himself as a piano player.^[2] He also stated that Feeder are a band, and even though he writes all the songs, he makes sure drummer Mark Richardson and bass player Taka Hirose have their say in the process of the creation of the songs.^[2]

[edit] Critical response

Pushing the Senses received mixed reviews from rock music critics. In a review for Dotmusic, Chris Heath said that "Feeder are in danger of being a schizophrenic band, unrecognisable from their once “trademark” sound and prone to style swings on a whim".^[4] The Guardian said the album was a "kind of emotional aural soup that will baffle the spikier members of their original punky fanbase".^[5] However, Q Magazine reviewer Paul Brannigan was impressed, and wrote that the album could "Finally establish Feeder as major league players".^[6] Metacritic, a website which aggregates the albums reviews from selected publications, gives an overall score of 52/100 indicating "Mixed or average reviews" from a total of six.^[7] Chris Heath of Dotmusic dismissed the album saying "Pushing the Senses is by no means soppy, but Feeder's young fanbase might need some convincing".^[7] Grant said that positive reviews are good to have, "but at the end of the day do not sell records".^[2]

In a review for BBC.co.uk, Lisa Haines praised the sound of Pushing the Senses, stating "The brand of raucous rock anthem which catapulted them to fame is virtually absent here, the band's new sound is far more thoughtful and understated. "Feeling A Moment" and "Tumble And Fall" are prime examples. Both have Coldplay inspired soaring vocals and catchy melodies, but a little of their lyrical hand wringing seems to have crept in too", and later said "That's not to say the album is bad, because there is a lot to like here. "Pilgrim Soul" and title track "Pushing The Senses" see Feeder thrash furiously away at their instruments, which should appease those who prefer their earlier work".^[8]

Q Magazine included the album in its list of the top fifty albums of 2005,^[9] ranking it at number thirty-nine with the second single "Feeling a Moment" being voted the ninety-eighth best track of the year by their readers.^[9] At the 2005 Kerrang! Awards, Feeder received a nomination for "Best British Band", the same award they won two years previously.^[10]^[11] The album later received a Pop Factory award for "Best Album".^[12]

[edit] Songs

Grant Nicholas performing with Feeder at the Islington Academy, promoting the Pushing The Senses album, as part of the XFM live session series.

"Tumble and Fall", Pushing the Senses's third track, was chosen as its lead single because the band didn't want to start off with "a big rock song", and try a different approach to the first single.^[2] The single became the bands most successful single release since "Buck Rogers", reaching the top five in the UK.^[13] Grant claimed that "Tumble and Fall" is a love song, but can be interpted in any way.^[2] In an interview on Feederweb.com Grant said of the song:- "Again this is about the ups and downs of life. It’s about life in general and how you deal with it. It covers the journey of life and how you have to take the ups with the downs. I wasn’t going to record this song. It took me a long time to finish it, to be happy with it, because the song went through various stages. I wasn’t sure if we really needed a tune like that on the album. But I decided to go to the studio to record an acoustic version just to see what happened and that’s how the song started. It was a completely one take vocal, live with the acoustic guitar and we built everything else around it. It is an acoustic track that grew into what it is now. So that was the only song that we recorded like that on the album, so it is a bit different for that reason and is probably why it has an organic feel to it".^[1]

The second single, "Feeling a Moment", received mostly positive reviews from critics, with Q Magazine comparing the song to "Beautiful Day" by U2 when they reviewed the album, with Paul Brannigan stating that the song "Has the optimistic soaring feel of U2's Beautiful Day...".^[6] It charted at number thirteen in the UK Singles Chart,^[13] and was originally going to be the albums first single.^[14]

"Pushing the Senses", the third single, was released in July of the same year, but became the bands lowest charting single since "Day in Day Out" from 1999, when it entered the UK chart at number thirty.^[13] This was followed-up in November with "Shatter / Tender", in which "Shatter" was a b-side on "Tumble and Fall" and left off the album as the band felt it wouldn't fit in with the general feel of the album,^[3] but was included on the Japanese release. A fans petition was set up to release the song as a single,^[15] and was also included alongside album track "Tender" on the end credits of the European dub of the Russian film Night Watch.^[16] The single reached number eleven in the UK singles chart.^[13]

[edit] Chart performance and sales

Pushing the Senses debuted on the UK albums chart, at their highest chart position to date at number two (blocked from the top position by Athlete's Tourist), and sold 42,951 copies.^[17] The album remained on the chart for fifteen weeks,^[13] and was certified gold on January 28, 2005.^[18] The album reached the top one-hundred in The Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Japan with a top twenty appearance in the Republic of Ireland,^[19]^[20]^[21] and sold 250,000 copies in Europe before the single release of the title track.^[22] Pushing the Senses became Feeder's first release to chart on the Eurochart Top Twenty Albums, where it peaked at number eleven.^[23]