Renegades (Feeder album)
Encyclopedia
Renegades is the seventh studio album
by the British rock band
Feeder
. It was released on July 5, 2010. It was due to be the first in a series of two albums released in 2010 by the band, before its follow-up was delayed for 2012. This album itself was the follow-up to 2008's Silent Cry
, which was their last album on The Echo Label and also their last with drummer Mark Richardson
before he returned to Skunk Anansie
.
The album represents a similar musical style as seen on 2008's Silent Cry, and features more songs using electric guitars while completely moving away from acoustic as seen on their previous two albums. The album was promoted to the fanbase in early 2010 by announcing a series of gigs under the side-project name Renegades
, with the shows being mainly to showcase the new songs that would be on the album and use the name change to state that the gigs will not be Feeder shows, but more like "A band within Feeder" as explained by frontman Grant Nicholas and to also bring attention to attendees of the shows, not to expect any of the band's hits as promoting the gigs under their "Feeder" name, would mean the band being expected to do so.
The album was moderately well received by the British public by becoming a top 20 album, charting at number 16, making it the first time the band missed the top 10 with a studio album since their 1997 debut Polythene
. However, this chart position was seen as a relative success by the band and also therefore their own label Big Teeth Music, as in the past their now previous and defunct label The Echo Label, paid for all their expenses, while on their own label had to self-fund for the recording sessions, production, engineering, promotion and distribution costs. Frontman Grant Nicholas described the level of success gained as "I’m quite proud of what we’ve achieved on just a very small scale on a tiny little label". It was also the first time Feeder released an album with no charting singles, and also the first time Feeder released an album with none of the singles released on CD format commercially. The album charted at #1 in the UK Rock Album Chart, making it the first time Feeder have ever topped a sales-based chart. "Call Out", "Renegades", "This Town" and "Down to the River" were all released as singles, with the last two released as a double A-sided set.
Like the DVD single release of "Forget About Tomorrow
", a series of photos consisting of Feeder's fans were included. This was however part of the inlay artwork, instead of the contents of the CD or DVD. Each fan had to send in a picture of themselves wearing a Renegades t-shirt behind a white background with then a series of the pics chosen for the album. Grant, Taka and Karl of the band also appear.
for most of 2009. Before the band headed to the studio they invited Ben's Brother
drummer Karl Brazil to help the band on drums
alongside Mexicolas
drummer Tim Trotter, who appears on the Renegades EP track "Time Goes By" alongside the album tracks "White Lines" and "Down to the River". 25 songs were recorded with 12 of these appearing on this album, other tracks appeared on the two Renegades EP
's and also on the forthcoming eighth Feeder studio album.
gave it 4/5, while MusicOMH
, and The Music Fix both awarded it 8/10. Contact Music were also positive in their review, while Q
were negative with a 2/5. Max Raymond of MusicOMH suggested that "Renegades, quite unexpectedly, is one of the best British rock albums you will hear all year". Will Dean of BBC Online did not praise the album giving it a mixed response by at first giving "White Lines" high approval before saying keeping each track to 3 minutes makes it look like the band are making excuses before slating the lyrics of "City in a Rut" and duration of "Barking Dogs". He concluded saying the album is only for "the hardcore". BBC Radio Wales
made it their "Album of the Week", playing one song from the album every day in the build-up towards its UK release as the album was already released in Japan. It was also the "Editors Choice" on Play.com
. NME
gave the album a 2/10 before suggesting the band should "quit", which caused the band's leading fan site "Feeder Fan Site" to quote from the review and then labelling
them as "wankers" afterwards. It is worth noting that NME never liked the band due to then rival publication Melody Maker
championing them.
, at number 16 and sold 8,729 copies making it the first Feeder album since 1997's Polythene
to miss the top 10, but was released without any mainstream airplay for the albums first single "Call Out"; a single which also missed the top 200 and the first Feeder single released on a physical format to do so. This is also the first album released by the band themselves on their own Big Teeth Music label, which is self-funded by the band therefore meaning less promotion than previous albums. As a result this was seen as a success, due to a much lower promotion budget than on Echo, with also promotion done mainly through word of mouth. Also, "Renegades" is only one of a few self-released albums or singles to ever record a top 20 placing.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the British rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
Feeder
Feeder
-Technology:* Feeder , any of several devices used in apiculture to supplement or replace natural food sources* Feeder , another name for a riser, a reservoir built into a metal casting mold to prevent cavities due to shrinkage...
. It was released on July 5, 2010. It was due to be the first in a series of two albums released in 2010 by the band, before its follow-up was delayed for 2012. This album itself was the follow-up to 2008's Silent Cry
Silent Cry
Silent Cry is the sixth full studio album by rock band Feeder. It was released by Echo, on 16 June 2008, on CD, deluxe CD, vinyl, and digital download. It was the follow-up to 2005's Pushing the Senses and in terms of all albums, the highly successful singles album in 2006...
, which was their last album on The Echo Label and also their last with drummer Mark Richardson
Mark Richardson (musician)
Mark Richardson is an English drummer, of the UK rock band Skunk Anansie and formerly of Little Angels and Feeder.-Personal life:...
before he returned to Skunk Anansie
Skunk Anansie
Skunk Anansie is an English rock band whose members include Skin , Cass , Ace and Mark Richardson .Skunk Anansie formed in March 1994, disbanded in 2001 and reformed in 2009...
.
The album represents a similar musical style as seen on 2008's Silent Cry, and features more songs using electric guitars while completely moving away from acoustic as seen on their previous two albums. The album was promoted to the fanbase in early 2010 by announcing a series of gigs under the side-project name Renegades
Renegades (band)
Renegades were a British rock band, which started out as a side-project from two members of the band Feeder, featuring guitarist Grant Nicholas and bassist Taka Hirose, before becoming a pseudonym name for Feeder themselves. Nicholas formed Renegades alongside Hirose with Karl Brazil from Ben's...
, with the shows being mainly to showcase the new songs that would be on the album and use the name change to state that the gigs will not be Feeder shows, but more like "A band within Feeder" as explained by frontman Grant Nicholas and to also bring attention to attendees of the shows, not to expect any of the band's hits as promoting the gigs under their "Feeder" name, would mean the band being expected to do so.
The album was moderately well received by the British public by becoming a top 20 album, charting at number 16, making it the first time the band missed the top 10 with a studio album since their 1997 debut Polythene
Polythene (album)
Polythene was the first full-length album by the Welsh rock band Feeder and was released 18 May 1997 on the Echo Label, and then re-issued on 28 October in the same year in an Enhanced CD version, featuring their UK top 40 breakthrough single "High" and its video...
. However, this chart position was seen as a relative success by the band and also therefore their own label Big Teeth Music, as in the past their now previous and defunct label The Echo Label, paid for all their expenses, while on their own label had to self-fund for the recording sessions, production, engineering, promotion and distribution costs. Frontman Grant Nicholas described the level of success gained as "I’m quite proud of what we’ve achieved on just a very small scale on a tiny little label". It was also the first time Feeder released an album with no charting singles, and also the first time Feeder released an album with none of the singles released on CD format commercially. The album charted at #1 in the UK Rock Album Chart, making it the first time Feeder have ever topped a sales-based chart. "Call Out", "Renegades", "This Town" and "Down to the River" were all released as singles, with the last two released as a double A-sided set.
Like the DVD single release of "Forget About Tomorrow
Forget About Tomorrow
"Forget about Tomorrow" was the third single to be taken from Feeder's 2002 album Comfort in Sound.The single charted at number 12 in the UK...
", a series of photos consisting of Feeder's fans were included. This was however part of the inlay artwork, instead of the contents of the CD or DVD. Each fan had to send in a picture of themselves wearing a Renegades t-shirt behind a white background with then a series of the pics chosen for the album. Grant, Taka and Karl of the band also appear.
Recording and production
The album was recorded in MV Studios, North WalesNorth Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
for most of 2009. Before the band headed to the studio they invited Ben's Brother
Ben's Brother
Ben's Brother is a five-piece band from the UK, headed by founder Jamie Hartman. Their band was named after Jamie's big brother Ben, in whose shadow he lived as a teenager...
drummer Karl Brazil to help the band on drums
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
alongside Mexicolas
Mexicolas
Mexicolas are a rock band from Birmingham, England, formed by Jamie Evans in 2004 and signed to Midlands based In Exile Records. Mexicolas were featured in a documentary series for Channel 4 entitled '4-Play'...
drummer Tim Trotter, who appears on the Renegades EP track "Time Goes By" alongside the album tracks "White Lines" and "Down to the River". 25 songs were recorded with 12 of these appearing on this album, other tracks appeared on the two Renegades EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
's and also on the forthcoming eighth Feeder studio album.
Critical response
The album received positive, middling and negative reviews. Kerrang!Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
gave it 4/5, while MusicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
, and The Music Fix both awarded it 8/10. Contact Music were also positive in their review, while Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
were negative with a 2/5. Max Raymond of MusicOMH suggested that "Renegades, quite unexpectedly, is one of the best British rock albums you will hear all year". Will Dean of BBC Online did not praise the album giving it a mixed response by at first giving "White Lines" high approval before saying keeping each track to 3 minutes makes it look like the band are making excuses before slating the lyrics of "City in a Rut" and duration of "Barking Dogs". He concluded saying the album is only for "the hardcore". BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales is the BBC's national radio station broadcasting to Wales in the English language. Operated by BBC Wales, it began broadcasting on 12 November 1978 following the demise of the old "Radio 4 Wales" when BBC Radio 4 became a national network and moved from medium wave to long wave...
made it their "Album of the Week", playing one song from the album every day in the build-up towards its UK release as the album was already released in Japan. It was also the "Editors Choice" on Play.com
Play.com
Play Ltd., trading as Play.com, is a Jersey-based online retailer of DVDs, CDs, books, gadgets, video games, DRM-free MP3 downloads, and other electronic products, as well as clothes and accessories. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rakuten Group....
. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
gave the album a 2/10 before suggesting the band should "quit", which caused the band's leading fan site "Feeder Fan Site" to quote from the review and then labelling
Labelling
Labelling or labeling is describing someone or something in a word or short phrase. For example, describing someone who has broken a law as a criminal. Labelling theory is a theory in sociology which ascribes labelling of people to control and identification of deviant behavior.It has been argued...
them as "wankers" afterwards. It is worth noting that NME never liked the band due to then rival publication Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
championing them.
Songs
Five of the tracks on the album had already been released on the Renegades EPs, including the lead tracks from each EP. "Renegades" was released as a single under the Feeder name, following up the first single "Call Out", which also started life as a Renegades track. "Barking Dogs" was also newly mixed for the album.Chart performance and sales
Renegades debuted on the UK Albums ChartUK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, at number 16 and sold 8,729 copies making it the first Feeder album since 1997's Polythene
Polythene (album)
Polythene was the first full-length album by the Welsh rock band Feeder and was released 18 May 1997 on the Echo Label, and then re-issued on 28 October in the same year in an Enhanced CD version, featuring their UK top 40 breakthrough single "High" and its video...
to miss the top 10, but was released without any mainstream airplay for the albums first single "Call Out"; a single which also missed the top 200 and the first Feeder single released on a physical format to do so. This is also the first album released by the band themselves on their own Big Teeth Music label, which is self-funded by the band therefore meaning less promotion than previous albums. As a result this was seen as a success, due to a much lower promotion budget than on Echo, with also promotion done mainly through word of mouth. Also, "Renegades" is only one of a few self-released albums or singles to ever record a top 20 placing.
Track listing
All tracks were written by Grant Nicholas, and composed by Feeder. On the standard edition of the album "Down to the River" is listed as "Down By the River".- "White Lines" – 2:54
- "Call OutCall Out (Feeder song)"Call Out" is a song by Feeder, released as the group's first single from their seventh album Renegades in 2010. The single was given no airplay attention with the music video only available to see on the bands website for a limited time and on YouTube...
" – 3:27 - "RenegadesRenegades (Feeder song)"Renegades" is a song by Feeder, released as the group's second single from their seventh album Renegades in 2010. The track started off life as a recording released under their Renegades side-project, with its release being on their first EP before then being included on the Feeder Renegades album...
" – 3:37 - "Sentimental" – 2:22
- "This TownDown to the River / This Town"Down to the River / This Town" are two songs on a double A-sided single by Feeder, released as the group's third and final single from their seventh album Renegades in 2010, while being their 31st single overall and their third double A-sided single after the 2008 release of "Tracing Lines /...
" – 2:57 - "Down to the RiverDown to the River / This Town"Down to the River / This Town" are two songs on a double A-sided single by Feeder, released as the group's third and final single from their seventh album Renegades in 2010, while being their 31st single overall and their third double A-sided single after the 2008 release of "Tracing Lines /...
" – 5:23 - "Home" – 3:11
- "Barking Dogs" – 2:05
- "City in a Rut" – 2:51
- "Left Foot Right" – 2:52
- "Godhead" (bonus track on special edition) – 3:35
- "The End" – 3:12
- "Fallen" (bonus track on iTunes & Japanese version) – 2:24
Personnel
- Grant Nicholas – guitar, vocals, keyboards, percussion
- Taka Hirose – bass
- Karl Brazil – drums (tracks 2-5 and 7-12), percussion
- Tim Trotter – drums (tracks 1, 6 and 13)
Release history
It was released by Victor Entertainment on June 30, 2010, and through Big Teeth Music on July 5, 2010.Charts
| Charts (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
16 |
| Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
93 |