Love ’em or loathe ’em (and almost 1m British album-buyers opted for the former), the Feeling are about communication: at their best, Dan Gillespie Sells’s songs (such as Never Be Lonely and Love It When You Call, from their debut LP, Twelve Stops and Home) possess a soft-pop majesty and dexterity that help you to park your misgivings and succumb. For much of their second album, though, that power of manipulation and clarity is blunted. Too often, songs – most damningly, I Thought It Was Over and the title track – get hopelessly lost en route, favouring clever-clogs complication over the first album’s brutally effective simplicity. Another barrier to affection is Gillespie Sells’s bizarre, ’ow’s-yer-farver? phonetics (why?). Only Without You and Won’t Go Away repeat the original formula. Still, it will doubtless sell by the zillions.

Island 1761894

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