I loved the first three Lonely Robot albums, but I am slightly disappointed in their fourth album Feelings Are Good.... That is mainly due to the fact that a couple of songs are too “poppy”, too repetitive and simply not as good as the songs on e.g. Under Stars (2019, see review) or The Big Dream (2017, see review). John Mitchell (vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards, also known from Arena, Kino and It Bites), is only assisted by Craig Blundell (drums) on this album, which features 11 new songs. Track 1 and 11 are short 'fillers” mainly consisting of two part vocal harmonies and keyboards, while the highlights of this album are Life Is A Sine Wave, Armour For My Heart, Keeping People As Pets and Army Of One. The first “real” song of this album, after the intro, is called Into The Lo-Fi, a truly mediocre Lonely Robot song with a repetitive tempo and almost no instrumental passages whatsoever... Follow up Spiders is a lot better as it is based on a huge guitar riff, horror lyrics and a truly remarkable guitar solo! Crystalline features another awesome guitar solo and the song is built around a gentle piano and vocal melody. The single Life Is A Sine Wave is a great prog rock song and the first real highlight of this album; check out Mitchell's fabulous guitar solo and play it LOUD! Armour For My Heart is the next highlight as it again features a superb guitar solo but furthermore it is also a magically composed track! The greatest original song title is of course Keeping People As Pets and the song rocks like no other song on this album. Then we hear the sound of marching army boots and you can enjoy the longest track of the album called Army Of One; again featuring a giant guitar solo; sheer awesome guitar stuff by Mitchell!! All in all Lonely Robot's 4th album is a mix of excellent songs, some “mediocre” tracks and alas also two fillers; but there is enough to enjoy here, especially if you like melodic prog with great songwriting and awesome guitar playing. Check it out for yourself. But for me Feelings Are Good is, sad but true, the “weakest” Lonely Robot album so far.... ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
