Comfort in Sound

Comfort in Sound
Studio album by Feeder
Released	October 21, 2002
Recorded	2001–2002
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	48:04
Label	Echo
Producer	Gil Norton, Grant Nicholas
Feeder chronology
Swim (re-release) (2001) Comfort in Sound (2002) Picture Of Perfect Youth (2004)
Singles from Comfort in Sound
"Come Back Around" Released: 7 Octoebr 2002 "Just the Way I'm Feeling" Released: 13 January 2003 "Forget About Tomorrow" Released: 5 May 2003 "Find the Colour" Released: 22 September 2003

Comfort in Sound is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Feeder, released on October 21, 2002 and also the first to be released by the band after the suicide of drummer Jon Lee earlier in the year. The album was recorded at RAK Studios in London during most of 2002, and was produced by Gil Norton.

Following a return to the live stage after Jon's suicide, by playing low-key slots at various festivals in the United Kingdom, the album was released after "Come Back Around" was released as a single. Three further singles—"Just the Way I'm Feeling", "Forget About Tomorrow" and "Find the Colour"—followed the album's release. The album received positive reviews from the music press and was received well by the public, reaching number six on the UK Albums Chart. Although charting one place lower than presuccessor Echo Park, Comfort in Sound had a much stronger chart run of 36 weeks on the weekly top 75 album chart, in comparison to the nine weeks of Echo Park.

Due to containing their second top ten single "Just the Way I'm Feeling", which gave them a more stronger audience and return to mainstream attention, while being the last album they released before headlining arenas for the first time, which in turn increased their popularity at music festivals turning them into a headline act at the 2005 Download Festival, as well as being their most critically and commercially acclaimed studio album, Comfort in Sound is often considered as Feeder's Magnum opus.

Release

The album was given a low-key promotional build up due to the death of their late drummer Jon Lee. Before the albums release the band played a small number of festivals at Reading/Leeds, and Gig on the Green. The Reading and Leeds shows seen one of the most talked-about events of that year's festival, in which the tent was overcrowded beyond its allowed capacity, and seen many people having to watch from outside as a result. Kerrang! magazine gave a rating of 5/5 (KKKKK), for the band's performance. Before these three were played, a warm-up show at the Portsmouth Wedgewood rooms took place two days before Reading. All of the festival shows were played on the second stage, to maintain the low-key status of the shows and albums build-up. Before being invited to the Reading/Leeds festival, the bands original plan was to release the album and not play any shows during the year, with the airplay of the albums first single "Come Back Around", to promote the album on pre-release. The single got its first airplay on BBC Radio 1's "The Evening Session" show, and was A-listed by the station. The song was originally recorded as an instrumental demo in 2001, with the lyrics shortly written afterwards. After the death of Jon Lee, Grant Nicholas re-wrote the lyrics to relate to their friend and colleague's death, when the final version was recorded with Mark Richardson on drums. A completely instrumental version of the album was issued to television and radio media.

Reception

While being well received by critics, it also had a similar response commercially. The album charted at #66 in the 2003 end of year charts, and also peaked at #6 on the weekly listing spending 36 weeks on the top 75. It also spawned a major radio and TV play hit in which "Just the Way I'm Feeling" gained over 15,000 UK radio plays and charted at #10 on the UK singles chart, following up "Come Back Around" which charted at #14. Their Glastonbury appearance was very well received by the press, and given coverage on BBC Three and BBC Radio 1 later in the year. Despite infamous negative comments from Lauren Laverne on BBC Three's late-night coverage regarding the band and age range of the bands fanbase (both views strongly disagreed on by the fans), many critics and attendees to the festival gave their performance a positive response.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
BBC Manchester	(9/10) link
Contactmusic	(Positive) link
Entertainment Ireland	link
The Guardian	link
The Fly	(Positive)
iAfrica.com	link
Kerrang!
Metal Hammer	(Positive)
Music Scene	link
Music Week	(Positive)
Planet Sound	(8/10)
Q
RTÉ Online	link
Rock Sound	(Positive)
Rockzone	(B+) link
The Times	(Positive)

The album quickly dropped out of the top 75 after entering at #6 spending only four weeks on the chart. It would not be until the airplay release of "Just the Way I'm Feeling" that the album re-entered the top 75 before making a top 40 re-entry the following week. On single release week the album re-entered the top 20 and then in two weeks climbed to its second re-entry peak of #13. The album then spent an uninterrupted number of 12 weeks on the top 75 bringing the total up to 16. It would not be until the release of "Forget About Tomorrow" that the album would re-enter the top 75, peak at #21 on its second re-entry and this time spend 10 weeks on the top 75 bringing the total up to 26 weeks; "Forget About Tomorrow" would meanwhile chart at #12. After a brief one-week re-entry, the single release of "Find the Colour" (which charted at #24) and a limited CD/DVD version of the album was released, the album re-entered for a three week spell peaking at #45 bringing the total up to 30. 2004 at first seen a one-week re-entry, with the album missing out on two extra weeks when it stalled at #76 twice in a row. The album then made its last ever chart entry to date when it spent five weeks on the top 75 peaking at #41 due to the then forthcoming release of Pushing the Senses. It is often disputed if the band peaked or not with the success of Comfort in Sound.

The band's reputation was highly risen, and turned them in to an act who were playlisted on the radio due to their public response, rather than the playlist departments of the respective stations opinions of the songs. This seen the album's fifth single, being the title track despite only being available to a limited quantity of 3,000 copies on the arena tour (and a limited download), playlisted on Radio 1's B-List despite its non-commercial availability. The album itself made enough grossings from sales alone, which enabled it to be profitable after the costs spent on the album were recouped. The album also sold more than expected by their record label Echo, after previous albums at the time sold in the region of 150,000 copies on average per release, with Echo originally pressing 100,000 units for the first week of release. As a result, despite not winning their Brit Award nomination for "Best British Rock", Feeder seen their then latest album become a commercial success, with Echo pressing four times more copies to meet demand helping the occurrence of the first ever profit-making year in the Echo label's then nine year history of 6.3 million pounds, although the label intended to be a non-profit company with financial support from their owners Chrysalis. This as a result influenced Echo to run as a profit-making business instead, and upstreamed the value of the company.

Touring was also a then peak for the band, in which they played a UK sell-out 21 date tour in March–April 2003 in front of 60,000 people, which also aided the albums chart longetivity. The success of the tour followed by their main stage debut at Glastonbury (they were third on the final day's bill), influenced them to play an arena tour at the end of the year. Although the tour was not a sell-out, they sold out their Bournemouth International Centre gig, sold a wide majority of the tickets for the Birmingham National Indoor Arena gig and got mostly positive reviews by the music press for the shows that were covered.

Personnel

• Grant Nicholas – vocals, guitars, keyboards
• Taka Hirose – bass, vocals
• Mark Richardson – drums, percussion

Accolades

• #37 in Q magazine's 2002 albums list.

• #27 in Planet Sound's 2002 albums list. (Listed as "Come Back Around" [sic]).

• #32 in Kerrang! magazine's "Top 100 British Rock Albums of All Time" list.

• Rock Sound – "Album of the Month".

• Kerrang! – "Album of the Week".

• Metal Hammer – "Album of the Month".

• The Times – "Album of the Week".

Award nomination

• "Best Album" at the 2003 Q Magazine Awards.

Track listing

European version

All songs written and composed by Grant Nicholas. 

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Just the Way I'm Feeling"	4:22
2.	"Come Back Around"	3:13
3.	"Helium"	3:15
4.	"Child in You"	3:27
5.	"Comfort in Sound"	3:46
6.	"Forget About Tomorrow"	3:51
7.	"Summer's Gone"	4:49
8.	"Godzilla"	2:05
9.	"Quick Fade"	4:24
10.	"Find the Colour" (omitted from first pressings of non-UK versions)	3:57
11.	"Love Pollution"	4:13
12.	"Moonshine"	6:49

Japanese/Korean/Hong Kong version

1. "Just the Way I'm Feeling"
2. "Come Back Around"
3. "Helium"
4. "Child in You"
5. "Comfort in Sound"
6. "Forget About Tomorrow"
7. "Summer's Gone"
8. "Godzilla"
9. "Quick Fade"
10. "Find the Colour"
11. "Love Pollution"
12. "Moonshine"
13. "Opaque"
14. "Emily"

Original version

This was an original track listing for the album, songs with a * after them were dropped from the final track listing, and have never since been released but some might have been working titles for songs that did make the album.

1. "All in All"*
2. "Walk"*
3. "Just the Way I'm Feeling"
4. "Come Back Around"
5. "Find the Colour"
6. "Helium"
7. "Child in You"
8. "Ascend"*
9. "Godzilla"
10. "Before We Find Out"*
11. "Crystal"*
12. "Late"*
13. "Forget About Tomorrow"

Chart performance

Chart (2005)	Peak position
UK Albums Chart	6
Irish Albums Chart	27
Japanese Albums Chart	98

UK Albums Chart
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Position	6	25	55	74	(RE)72	35	16	14	13	21	27	31	39	49	57	61	(RE)66	49	38	31	21	26	28	40	55	58	(RE)74	(RE)45	52	67	(RE)73	(RE)51	42	43	41	55

Top 75 IRMA Irish Albums Chart
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08
Position	27	42	57(RE)	28	58	36	48	62(RE)

Top 100 Japanese Oricon Chart
Week	01
Position	98
Sales	2630