The Feeling: Four Stops and Home EP

No matter what superlatives NME spews in the Feeling’s favour — I think it was something along the lines of the band being the most exciting thing going in rock right now — this band is squarely MOR. Sorry, but they are. Their keyboard-driven rock ballads quickly bring to mind Coldplay, and though the band shoots at something a little fiercer they never reach the wit or bile of a Ben Folds or Tim Freeman. Four Stops and Home, their debut EP, is a straightforward grab at radio recognition — from the tinkling balladry of lead single “Sewn” (since when did the line “you’ve got my head in a headlock” sound so cheerful?) to the juvenile sing-a-long of “Helicopter” to the easy-listening jazz backed cynicism of “All You Need to Do” (it’s to say ‘I love you’, turns out). The two-year-old British band may be the beneficiary of tabloid love back home, and who can predict radio stations’ formula-calculated Next Big Thing, but the Feeling’s only slightly above Keane in terms of bands from Britain to be taken seriously.