Twelve Stops and Home - Released 2006 - 6

The essence of any Brit-Pop band is do they have enough originality to last the distance. It's often easy to produce a stunning first album and then fail to live up to expectations. The first album can well be dominated by songs written over a period of time. The problem can come when new material has to be written. Having said that there has to be a starting point and The Feeling are a decent southern England band with some catchy choruses and hook lines that have stood them apart from many of their contemporaries. They have the pseudo London feel of a Blur but mix it with decent melodies. They are one of those bands that you hear in a shopping centre or on the radio and immediately think "that's good who are they? It's just remembering them apart from the others that is crucial. Their debut album is full of idiosyncratic pop tunes - Never Be Lonely and Sewn being just two that give this album a feisty feel that somehow links with the likes of Travis, Coldplay and Keane. "Anyone" is a beautifully structured almost classical piece of folk/rock/classical fusion.

Join With Us - Released 2008 - 6

Thankfully with their second offering The Feeling maintain the freshness of Twelve Stops From Home with another album of interesting Brit pop that still manages to show a progression in their songwriting. There are two excellent pieces on this album - Without You is a poignant song of love (nothing to do with the Nilsson/Badfinger song of the same title) and the album closes with "The Greatest Show on Earth" which is really two songs joined together with a ridiculously catchy ending. Elsewhere more songs of loneliness, hope and despair and certainly overall it's on a par with Twelve Stops and Home.