Welcome to this week’s Pop Essays on what has been a very chilly week indeed. Still, come rain, snow, shine, frost or wind, we get these little lesser spotted gems of pop to you to warm your heart, as we do indeed again this week…
- Artist: The Feeling feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor
- Song: Leave Me Out Of It
- Released: 20/06/2011 (on Together We Were Made album)
- Writers / Producers: Dan Gillespie-Sells / Ciaran Jeremiah / Kevin Jeremiah / Paul Stewart / Richard Jones / Freemasons
- Highest UK Chart Position: #22
- Chart Run: 22 – 71 – 92
When I planned this as one of my first entries back for this series a couple of months ago, I could hardly have foreseen that one of the artists involved was about to be at the epicentre of what can only be described as a pop cultural second coming. But I will save myself for discussion on that until a seperate blog tomorrow. For now, let’s get back to the matter in hand.
DSAS (Difficult Second Album Syndrome) can be a cruel, unforgiving mistress. And few bands had felt that quite like The Feeling did after the release of their second album. In 2006, they had been the toast of the UK airwaves and record buyers with their first album, the triple platinum selling Twelve Stops And Home.
Their beguiling and genuinely charming mix of classic melodies and songwriting, and a sound referencing bands like ELO and Supertramp in genuine modern classics and top 10 hits like “Fill My Little World”, “Never Be Lonely” and “Love It When You Call”, saw them become the most played band on UK radio in that year. It was likely that anywhere you went in 2006 where a radio was playing, that you were no more than five minutes away from hearing one of their songs.
So even though their second album, Join With Us, went to the top of the charts upon its release in February 2008, the wider public support for them seemed to evaporate almost overnight, and it went onto sell just over 100,000 copies all told – a marked comedown from the near million that they had enjoyed on the first album. Only the second album’s lead single, “I Thought It Was Over”, reached the top 10, whilst the rest of the singles that followed it – “Without You”, “Turn It Up” and the title track – all resolutely failed to make the top 40 – or even top 75 in some cases.
So by the time their third album – and what would eventually turn out to be their last with Island Records – Together We Were Made, came out in June 2011, their audience had dwindled further still. A cruel circumstance indeed, when actually, it was probably the album that offered the strongest material of their career, including this touted single that ultimately never was.
Richard Jones, the band’s bassist, was (and still is) married to Sophie Ellis-Bextor. He is now her bassist in her live band when The Feeling are not touring, and Dan Gillespie-Sells also co-wrote and provided guitar and backing vocals with Sophie on “Only One” and “Love Is Here”, two tracks for her 2007 comeback album Trip The Light Fantastic. It was only a matter of time therefore, before she returned the favour.
And indeed, it probably would have been the thing to boost Sophie’s own career at that point; her fourth album Make A Scene had just come out, but had had a painfully long gestation to do so, with her leaving Universal (under Polydor) with the album masters after the underperformance of its lead single, “Bittersweet”, and the album being released in Russia first, where she had a larger following at the time, and it finally coming out on her own label, EBGBs, to almost virtual indifference (it debuted and peaked at #33).
“Leave Me Out Of It” is unquestionably one of those duets that plays to the strengths of both artists involved. Produced by the Brighton based production team Freemasons – who had not long worked with Sophie, as she was guest vocalist on their big top 20 hit “Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer)” – the brooding synth line offers the song a delightful retro noir feel, like it could have soundtracked a dark 80s thriller or dare we say it, Bond film.
There’s an intensity in both Dan’s verses – “Leave me out of it / You’re alone and that’s your thing, that’s your thing / And if you don’t hear your voice / You’re alone and that’s your choice, baby, that’s your choice” – and in the chorus, which is one line repeated over and over: “You don’t know what love is till you’ve had mine”, the melody line of which is elaborated on with Sophie’s crisp, clear lines in the second chorus: “You don’t know what love is, but you need some / A crack in your heart that can’t be undone / You don’t know what love is till you’ve had mine / Coming through your door, soon I’ll have you calling out for more”.
“Leave Me Out Of It” certainly has a dramatic, cinematic quality – something that ultimately proved to be foretelling of Dan’s future success writing and composing the score for the West End musical – and then film – Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
But alas, hidden away unnoticed on the band’s third album, which debuted and peaked at #22 before falling out the chart altogether three weeks later, meant that, a couple of TV performances aside, it never got the moment it deserved. A singles collection album followed in November at the contractual obligation of Universal / Island, that thus ended their time at the label.
Yet, as we’ll discuss tomorrow, with Sophie now experiencing a renaissance and discovery via a new generation with one of her old songs, who’s to say The Feeling couldn’t yet experience and feel the benefit of such a situation themselves? Film directors of the UK who are reading, you would do well to look to their back catalogue – especially a lesser spotted gem as this.
Don’t forget to follow our Pop Essays playlist on Spotify, which includes this and all the songs we’ve written about. What are your memories of this week’s featured song or band? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or message us on our Instagram.
The Niche Reference 