''Generation Freakshow'' is the eighth studio album by Welsh
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Feeder. It was released on 23 April 2012. It was due to be the second in a series of two albums released in 2010 by the band, following up previous album ''Renegades''. However, the band decided to hold more recording sessions for the album, leading them to delay the album until 2012.
Recording and production
In 2010, during the ''Renegades'' sessions, a number of tracks were left off the album before then being considered for inclusion for the follow-up to that album.
As there were not enough to fit on the album, more were recorded during the closing stages of the year, with the band taking a break from recording on 19 December,
before resuming recording on 10 January 2011.
Between 16 January and 24 January a production session began in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, this included overdubs, guitars and keyboards with frontman Grant Nicholas also flying over to record vocals, while some of the album was already recorded in London.
On 19 January 2011 a photo of song lyrics written on a sheet of paper was posted on their official
Facebook
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page.
One song was debuted live on tour under three different working titles, with those being "Jessie", "White City Rock" and "Borders".
In an interview with ''
Heineken
Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star.
History
On 15 Febr ...
Music'', on 27 January 2011 Grant revealed that 19 or 20 songs were in the recording stages, while the album, like ''Renegades'', looked likely to be released domestically on their own Big Teeth Music imprint.
In an interview with ''
The University Observer
''The University Observer'' is a broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the campus of University College Dublin, Ireland, once every three weeks.
Launched in 1994 by University College Dublin Students' Union, the newspaper was an immedia ...
'', Grant describes the album: "Its eclectic, much more eclectic than the ''Renegades'' album... Its definitely a more commercial record. I think if you liked ''Comfort in Sound'' and you liked ''Yesterday Went Too Soon'', then I think you’ll like this album" ... "There are some real tunes on this and some anthems; there are some rocky moments as well".
There were also plans to release a single or a free track download during their February - March tour.
This later went on to become "
Side By Side", which was a chart-eligible paid download in aid of the victims of the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...
in Japan. The single charted at #91, marking their first top 100 chart visit since 2008's "We Are the People", while becoming their 25th top 100 single in the process. It ultimately did not appear on the album, although was included as a bonus track on the Japanese release. During their 2011 touring, Feeder introduced drummer Damon Wilson as a live regular and session musician. On 23 September 2011, Grant Nicholas posted on the band's Facebook page that the recording of their studio album was complete with only mixing on the final song to be finalised,
before mastering then began on the 30 September in New York.
Feeder announced on 10 October that they were doing artwork on the album, before an announcement was made on 14 November, that acoustic versions of some of the songs were being recorded while bassist Taka Hirose was staying in Tokyo.
On 29 November 2011, the sequencing process of the album began.
Feeder hosted a trailer on YouTube titled "Coming Soon" on 2 December 2011 and had a message written in
Morse code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
as "-... --- .-. -.. . .-. ...", which translates to "Borders" in standard English. On 6 December 2011 another trailer was released, announcing "Borders" as the first single from the new album, including a four-date tour. "Borders" was released on CD, cassette and 7" on 30 January 2012, with the parent album ''Generation Freakshow'' on 23 April 2012. This was the first time Feeder released a cassette single since 2001's "Just a Day"; "Borders" went on to chart at #52. The only track from the sessions of the ''Renegades'' album to end up on ''Generation Freakshow'', was that of "Tiny Minds".
["Generation Freakshow Review"](_blank)
Drowned in Sound 23 April Retrieved 29 April 2012
Reception
''Generation Freakshow'' was met with mixed reviews and was a commercial failure due to not reaching the top 10 of the album charts; where the band at the time frequently charted. Although their previous album also failed to make the top 10, there was a lot of hope for the band to return to the top 10 with this album. They would have to wait until 2016 to make a return.
Metro described Feeder as "keeping a steady musical pace,yet stick to the same predictable formula" when reviewing Generation Freakshow.
BBC Music
BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network.
Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio o ...
praised the album as "more mature,more considered and less noisy". After two weeks the album had sold 9000 copies in the UK.
The album received a two star rating from ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', being described as "solid yet uninspiring".
''
Drowned in Sound
''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums.
History
''D ...
'' credited Feeder for creating another strong addition to their back catalogue.
Kerrang! were also positive in their review, stating that "the 12 fabulous songs that comprise Generation Freakshow see Feeder striking the canvas with more measured strokes".
The album was a relative commercial failure, charting at #13 in the UK albums chart, despite being an improvement on the #16 of ''Renegades''. Lead single “Borders" however brought Feeder back into the top 75 charts after a near four-year absence, when it charted at #52 in February 2012; none of the singles on ''Renegades'' charted. The album also seen the band return to the
Brixton Academy
Brixton Academy (originally known as the Astoria Variety Cinema, previously known as Carling Academy Brixton, currently named O2 Academy Brixton as part of a sponsorship deal with the O2 brand) is a mid-sized concert venue located in South Wes ...
after a four-year absence, one of the UK's major gig venues. Before this, the band had returned to the smaller venues within the capital and the rest of the UK.
It was at this Brixton show, Nicholas repeated on stage a statement he made months prior to the tour, being that the band were going to take a break and decide on what to do next. This caused a joint misinterpretation, suggesting either that the band were going to later split up, or were going to re-evaluate their musical direction. The commercial failure of the album was a contributing factor to the decision to take a break, before releasing their comeback album in 2016, which brought the band back into the Top 10; an uninterrupted run which has so far lasted four albums in total.
In August 2019, the band were inducted into the ''Kerrang! Hall of Fame'', with this album being one of the reasons the band were inducted, being due to the 4/5 rating their magazine counterpart awarded the album.
Track listing
All songs written by Grant Nicholas.
Personnel
*
Grant Nicholas
Grantley Jonathan "Grant" Nicholas (born 12 November 1967) is a Welsh musician, and lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Feeder.
Early years
Nicholas was born in Newport, South Wales, but grew up in Pwllmeyric, near Chepstow. He was educa ...
– vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion, production
*
Taka Hirose
Takashi "Taka" Hirose (Japanese: タカ・ヒロセ (広瀬 隆), born 28 July 1967 in Mizuho, Japan) is a Japanese musician and chef who is the current bass guitarist for the rock band Feeder.
Biography
Hirose began playing bass at the age of ...
– bass guitars, backing vocals
*
Karl Brazil
Karl Peter Brazil (born 27 May 1977, Solihull) is an English session drummer.
He is best known as the drummer for the British indie rock band Feeder, replacing the band's previous drummer Mark Richardson. He often works with other pop and ...
- drums, percussion
Production
*
Chris Sheldon
Chris Sheldon (born 25 September 1962) is an English record producer, particularly of rock music based in London, England. He has produced or mixed records for the Foo Fighters, Garbage, Big Country, Feeder, Therapy?, Biffy Clyro, Oceansize, Pix ...
- production, engineering, additional engineering on "Tiny Minds", mixing
* Matt Sime - engineering and additional production on "Tiny Minds"
*
Brian Sperber
Brian Sperber is a rock producer/sound engineer/ mixer. He has spent the bulk of his career at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. After years as an audio engineer for artists as varied as Whitney Houston, Patti Smith, De La Soul, and Ozzy O ...
- mixing, additional backing vocal on "Oh My", additional keyboard on "Hey Johnny"
* Paul Spong - trumpet on "In All Honesty"
* Tom Fuller - assistant engineer
* George Apison - assistant engineer
*
Ted Jensen
Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''.
Biography
Ted ...
- mastering
* Nigel Walton - sequencing
*
Roger Ballen
Roger Ballen (born April 11, 1950) is an American artist living in Johannesburg, South Africa, and working in its surrounds since the 1970s. His oeuvre, which spans five decades, began with the documentary photography field but evolved into the ...
- photography
*
Scarlet Page
Scarlet Lilith Eleida Page (born 24 March 1971) is an English photographer. She is the daughter of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and Charlotte Martin, a French model.
Childhood
Born in London, she grew up in England, and stayed at both Plump ...
- photography
References
External links
Official Feeder website
{{Authority control
2012 albums
Feeder albums