Feeder follow up 2019’s ‘Tallulah’ album with ‘Torpedo’ – a collection of songs written and adapted during their extended break during the pandemic. This downtime gave the band more time to enhance demos, experiment with different aural textures and strike that delicate balance between darkness and light…
The slow-burning and anthemic ‘The Healing’ opens the record with Grant Nicholas revealing how he’s feeling the suffering and vowing to ‘learn to live, learn to forget, stay strong with no regrets’. As the drums come in – along with some deliciously dirty riffs – he provides a call to arms with an urge for everyone to come together. Following this is the title track – and it’s one that took us right back to the ‘Insomnia’ era of the band, albeit with a more industrial feel. Again, there’s talk of connection and uniting with people: ‘Today feels like everything will be right’. There’s a dip into the Seattle grunge sound of the early ’90s on ‘Magpie’ as Grant bemoans his luck while ‘Hide and Seek’ is full of the potent melodic alt-rock hooks that became the trademark Feeder sound, all set against lyrics about returning home and getting ‘lost in Wonderland’.
‘Decompress’ is more fuzzy with a look towards the future – ‘See what tomorrow has to give, maybe the sun will shine through the clouds and morning rain. See what tomorrow has to bring before we lose our minds’ – while ‘Slow Strings’ is driven along by a deep and menacing bass that finds Grant examining his own behaviour: ‘Who am I to hold you down?’. ‘Born to Love You’ also finds personal fears rising to the surface but also seems to be about embracing those chinks of light that shine through the darkness before the album closes with the goosebump-inducing ‘Submission’ – ‘Never look back, never lose our sense of home’ – and the more introspective bonus track ‘Desperate Hour’.
With ‘Torpedo’, Feeder have returned with a bang – and it’s an emotional and exhilarating one at that.
