Renegades (Feeder album)

Renegades
Studio album by Feeder
Released July 5, 2010
Recorded 2009
Genre Alternative rock, new prog
Length 34:49 (Standard edition)
Label Big Teeth Music
Producer Grant Nicholas, Matt Sime
Feeder chronology

Silent Cry
(2008)		 Renegades
(2010)		 Generation Freakshow
(2012)
Singles from Renegades
  1. "Call Out"
    Released: 14 June 2010
  2. "Renegades"
    Released: 23 August 2010
  3. "Down to the River / This Town"
    Released: 6 December 2010

Renegades is the seventh studio album by the British rock band Feeder. It was released on July 5, 2010. It was due to be the first in a series of two albums released in 2010 by the band, before its follow-up was delayed for 2012. This album itself was the follow-up to 2008's Silent Cry, which was their last album on The Echo Label and also their last with drummer Mark Richardson before he returned to Skunk Anansie.

The album mostly represents a similar musical style as seen on 1997's Polythene, and features more songs using electric guitars while completely moving away from acoustic as seen on their previous two albums. The album was promoted to the fanbase in early 2010 by announcing a series of gigs under the side-project name Renegades, with the shows being mainly to showcase the new songs that would be on the album and use the name change to state that the gigs will not be Feeder shows, but more like "A band within Feeder" as explained by frontman Grant Nicholas and to also bring attention to attendees of the shows, not to expect any of the band's hits as promoting the gigs under their "Feeder" name, would mean the band being expected to do so.

The album was moderately well received by the British public by becoming a top 20 album, charting at number 16, making it the first time the band missed the top 10 with a studio album since their 1997 debut Polythene. However, this chart position was seen as a relative success by the band and also therefore their own label Big Teeth Music, as in the past their now previous and defunct label The Echo Label, paid for all their expenses, while on their own label had to self-fund for the recording sessions, production, engineering, promotion and distribution costs with promotion being on a much smaller scale. Frontman Grant Nicholas described the level of success gained as "I’m quite proud of what we’ve achieved on just a very small scale on a tiny little label". It was also the first time Feeder released an album with no charting singles, and also the first time Feeder released an album with none of the singles released on CD format commercially. The album charted at #1 in the UK Rock Album Chart, making it the first time Feeder have ever topped a sales-based chart. "Call Out", "Renegades", "This Town" and "Down to the River" were all released as singles, with the last two released as a double A-sided set.

Like the DVD single release of "Forget About Tomorrow", a series of photos consisting of Feeder's fans were included. This was however part of the inlay artwork, instead of the contents of the CD or DVD. Each fan had to send in a picture of themselves wearing a Renegades t-shirt behind a white background with then a series of the pictures chosen for the album. Grant, Taka and Karl of the band also appear.

Recording and production

The album was recorded in Monnow Valley Studio, Rockfield, South Wales for most of 2009. Before the band headed to the studio they invited Ben's Brother drummer Karl Brazil to help the band on drums alongside Mexicolas drummer Tim Trotter, who appears on the Renegades EP track "Time Goes By" alongside the album tracks "White Lines" and "Down to the River". 25 songs were recorded with 12 of these appearing on this album, other tracks appeared on the two Renegades EP's and also on Generation Freakshow, with the only track from those sessions being "Tiny Minds".

Critical response

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Clash Music link
Kerrang!
NME
Q August 2010
Rock Sound link
Virgin Music link

The album received positive, middling and negative reviews. Kerrang! gave it 4/5 citing that if anyone was bored with the band in the past, they don't understand music, while MusicOMH, and The Music Fix both awarded it 8/10. Contact Music were also positive in their review, while Q were negative with a 2/5. Max Raymond of MusicOMH suggested that "Renegades, quite unexpectedly, is one of the best British rock albums you will hear all year". Will Dean of BBC Online did not praise the album giving it a mixed response by at first giving "White Lines" high approval before saying keeping each track to 3 minutes makes it look like the band are making excuses before slating the lyrics of "City in a Rut" and duration of "Barking Dogs". He concluded saying the album is only for "the hardcore". BBC Radio Wales made it their "Album of the Week", playing one song from the album every day in the build-up towards its UK release as the album was already released in Japan. It was also the "Editors Choice" on Play.com. NME gave the album a 2/10 before suggesting the band should "quit", which caused the band's leading fan site "Feeder Fan Site" to quote from the review and then labelling them as "wankers" afterwards.

Songs

Playing a live gig as Renegades at the Camden Electric Ballroom in April 2010.

Five of the tracks on the album had already been released on the Renegades EPs, including the lead tracks from each EP. "Renegades" was released as a single under the Feeder name, following up the first single "Call Out", which also started life as a Renegades track. "Barking Dogs" was also newly mixed for the album.

Chart performance and sales

Renegades debuted on the UK Albums Chart, at number 16 and sold 8,729 copies making it the first Feeder album since 1997's Polythene to miss the top 10, but was released without any mainstream airplay for the album's first single "Call Out"; a single which also missed the top 200 and the first Feeder single released on a physical format to do so. This is also the first album released by the band themselves on their own Big Teeth Music label, which is self-funded by the band therefore meaning less promotion than previous albums. As a result this was seen as a success, due to a much lower promotion budget than on Echo, with also promotion done mainly through word of mouth. Also, "Renegades" is only one of a few self-released albums or singles to ever record a top 20 placing in the United Kingdom, or a top 100 placing in Japan.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Grant Nicholas. 

No. Title Length
1. "White Lines"   2:54
2. "Call Out"   3:27
3. "Renegades"   3:37
4. "Sentimental"   2:22
5. "This Town"   2:57
6. "Down to the River" (titled "Down By The River" on standard UK CD) 5:23
7. "Home"   3:11
8. "Barking Dogs"   2:05
9. "City in a Rut"   2:51
10. "Left Foot Right"   2:52
11. "The End"   3:12

Personnel

Additional Musicians

Production

Release history

It was released in Japan by Victor Entertainment on June 30, 2010, and in the rest of the world through Big Teeth Music on July 5, 2010. Chrysalis, who owned The Echo Label, dealt with the UK distribution of the album.

In late 2012, the album was released on vinyl for the first time via the online Feeder shop vendor Recordstore. This was released as a double gatefold allowing the vinyl of "Generation Freakshow" to be included in the package, which was also sent to the buyer. Early pressings were offered for sale with a Christmas card signed by the band, while enclosed in wrapping paper featuring the band's name.

Charts

Charts (2010) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart 16
Japanese Albums Chart 93

References

    External links