''Fed'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American musician

Liam Hayes Liam Hayes, professionally known as Plush since 1992, is an American songwriter and performer, originally from Chicago, Illinois, United States. His discography includes three critically acclaimed records: '' More You Becomes You'' (1998), '' F ...

, released under his stage name Plush on December 23, 2002 on the record label After Hours exclusively in Japan. The album was belatedly released in Europe by Broken Horse Records on August 25, 2008, receiving highly positive reviews from music critics.

Recording

An early version of the ''Fed'' song "No Education" was released as a single in 1997. Formal recording sessions for ''Fed'' were started in early 2000, with engineers

Bob Weston Bob Weston (born 1965) is an American musician, producer, recording engineer, and record mastering engineer. Critic Jason AnkenyAnkeny, Jason. " Bob Weston: Overview from Allmusic.com declares that "Weston's name and fingerprints are all over th ...

and

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

and Konrad Strauss contributing to the recording. Weston stated: Shortly after the sessions with Bob Weston, the album's recording was moved to

Electrical Audio Electrical Audio is a recording facility founded in Chicago, Illinois by musician and recording engineer Steve Albini in 1997. Hundreds of independent music projects have been recorded there. Unlike most producers, Albini refuses to take any royal ...

, with

and Konrad Strauss taking over engineering and recording duties. Arranger Tom Tom MMLXXXIV, who had worked with

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...

Loleatta Holloway Loleatta Holloway (, ; November 5, 1946 – March 21, 2011) was an American singer known for disco songs such as "Hit and Run" and "Love Sensation". In December 2016, ''Billboard'' named her the 95th most successful dance artist of all time. Acco ...

, and

Minnie Riperton Minnie Julia Riperton Rudolph (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter best known for her 1975 single " Lovin' You" and her four octave D3 to F7 coloratura soprano range. She is also widely known for her use ...

among others, was brought in to provide full band arrangements. An incredible amount of time was put into the recording and arrangement of the music being developed. The end result was an album full of ornamented arrangements with full horn sections married to rock band arrangements.

Critical reception

Upon being re-released in 2008, ''Fed'' was well-received by music critics. The album holds a score of 89 out of 100 on the review aggregator website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "universal acclaim".

Track listing

All songs written by Liam Hayes. # "Whose Blues" – 5:04 # "I've Changed My Number" – 3:33 # "Blown Away" – 3:03 # "So Blind" – 3:20 # "Greyhound Bus Station" – 2:49 # "No Education" – 5:22 # "Sound of S.F." – 3:33 # "Born Together" – 2:53 # "Unis" – 0:26 # "Whose Blues Anyway" – 1:35 # "What'll We Do" – 3:03 # "Having It All" – 4:03 # "Fed Intro" – 6:50 # "Fed" – 6:50 # "The Woods" – 2:56

References

{{Authority control 2002 albums Liam Hayes albums