Following a brief hiatus, British alt-rock veterans Feeder return with their 9th studio album, ‘All Bright Electric’. The record starts promisingly enough, with the first single, ‘Universe of Life’, coming quickly out the gate, elevated by a devilish guitar riff. It is a strong opener, full of ideas, and boasts an anthemic chorus that will surely go down well in the live environment.

However, the main issue with ‘All Bright Electric’ is that most of what follows fails to match the opener for melody or inventiveness. There are promising moments, and second single ‘Eskimo’ provides some joy with its rallying chorus and surprising swagger. If anything, the singles do demonstrate the thoughtful work Feeder have put into the production stages of ‘All Bright Electric’. But, for the most part, a lot of what trails is a selection of mainly fine, radio-friendly rock songs, each well produced and professionally performed, but lacking anything that truly lingers in the psyche.

Acoustic track ‘Oh Mary’ does provide a much needed change of pace, with Nicholas, clearly channelling his recent solo material, finally striking an emotive note in an otherwise hollow experience.

Former Download Festival headliners Feeder are obviously British rock royalty, and will have a devoted fan base no matter what, but is it wrong to expect more from the band that gave us such classics like ‘Buck Rogers’ and ‘Just The Way I’m Feeling’? Devout fans will probably be satisfied enough, and will be happy just to have the band back and playing shows again, but after a 20+ year career that boasts 25 Top 40 hits, Feeder needed something truly special to stand out from their peers in a thriving 2016 UK rock scene and, despite taking the occasional chance, they just don’t deliver that here.

2.5/5

‘All Bright Electric’ by Feeder is released on October 7th on Cooking Vinyl.

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Words by Joe Philpott (@joe_philpott)