Feeder – Echo Park (2001)

Sometimes a single song can be a big enough incentive to buy the whole album. I was visiting London some time before I lived here and went to the Portobello Road market. There, in a CD stall, I found a compilation of 100 Indie rock hits and the Feeder song Buck Rogers was on that album. I really liked that song. It was kind of like the college rock bands of the US, but not tacky in the same way. Later on, I was rummaging through the CDs at a record store's end sale in Helsinki and I saw Echo Park with a very affordable price and I bought it. This is one of the few Welsh bands I know, but it doesn't sound what I expect Welsh bands to sound at all. It sounds very American by its sounds. Also, I only know Echo Park to mean the famous park in Los Angeles that has been mentioned in many other pop and rock songs by artists I like.


Echo Park has been mentioned so much in popular music that I really want to go there if I ever visit Los Angeles. I don't know if I'll be hugely disappointed, but I'm just curious why it's such a meaningful place that it's been mentioned everywhere.

Feeder's sounds have a strong connection with 90s Britpop movement even though generally they sound quite American and the sounds are harder than in Britpop. Especially in songs where the lead vocals are softer, it reminds me of many 90s bands.

The album starts with sounds of marching and some jazz tunes in the song Standing On the Edge, that quite quickly turns into a hard rock piece with quite aggressive drum bits here and there. I like the interplay of soft and hard in this song. Second song on the album is the hit song Buck Rogers. I didn't remember it from before when I heard it on my Indie compilation, but I think I must have heard it somewhere else as well, because after I got acquainted with the song, I've heard it being played in quite a few places. I love the large guitar walls in the chorus. There's something similar to Pixies in this song. Piece by Piece tones the mood down a bit to a mellow indie rock. The vocals have been distorted slightly and the whole song is very deep in the studio techniques. Seven Days in the Sun has very hard guitar riffs and the melody is particularly reminiscent to college rock from the US. We Can't Rewind starts as a bit calmer song, which makes me think of Jimmy Eat World, but the song gets heavier into the chorus making this one of the catchiest songs on the album. Turn has very typical late 90s, early 00s style indie guitars that are reminiscent of Nada Surf's later albums. Choke starts with full blast electric guitars and drums blasting out noisy banging. The chorus is closer to heaviest Pixies songs. Oxygen brings the tempo down and col sounding electric guitars play distorted riffs that wouldn't be out of place in early Radiohead songs. The catchy chorus is fantastic songwriting. Tell All Your Friends has trebled-up bass lines and the song builds up beautifully towards the chorus. Under the Weather is a classic alternative hard rock song in the style of Pixies, although the vocal melodies reveal it as something else, since it's too close to American college rock. Satellite News is another lower-intensity song with chiming guitars and beautiful vocals. The album ends with a bang in an aggressive sounding rock song Bug.

Buck Rogers has one of those big budget music videos that are a pleasure to watch. It has an elephant in an office building that turns into some kind of vehicle that brings the band into the room. The musical performance is beautifully energetic in the chorus, contrasted against the quieter verse,where the band is just standing still. Towards the end the stage gets bigger and it seems they're perhaps in some kind of space ship inside the elephant. Psychedelic stuff.

I rarely listen to this album in its entirety, but I enjoy the sounds very much when one of these songs come up in my shuffle list. For a long time I found these kinds of American sounds really tacky, but when I grew older and I didn't have to care what anyone else thinks, I kind of like the explosive qualities of this kind of power pop.

Listen to the album on Spotify.