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Feelings is the fifth studio album by David Byrne, released on June 17, 1997. The album is noted for Byrne’s collaboration with the British band Morcheeba.
In retrospect Feelings is probably the last time that David Byrne made a conscious effort to make an album that might sell to an audience beyond his most obsessed fans.
Where his previous self titled album had been a mature mix of material with a very definite adult feel about it, Feelings was partly a playful collaboration with trip-hop act Morcheeba. As unlikely as this collaboration sounds, it really does work very well, giving many of the songs a much more danceable edge than usual and providing Byrne with a range of musical backdrops that allowed the album to alter it’s mood and tempo regularly without it sounding confusing. A bit like Talking Heads really…
Again Byrne manages to shift seamlessly between various types of song, from the amusing (“Miss America”), strangely romantic (“A Soft Seduction”), the oddly threatening (“Dance On Vaseline”), peaceful (“Burnt By The Sun”) and, perhaps most unexpectedly, rocking (“The Civil Wars”).
Lyrically it’s all up to Byrne’s usual high quality, but it’s the tunes that stand out throughout.
Of special note though is the final track, “They Are In Love”, a seemingly woozy romantic song which details domestic violence, drug abuse and a couple who just cannot see the plain fact that they would be much happier without each other.
It’s as if Byrne had attended the Tom Waits school of songwriting for the purposes of this one song. It’s nothing if not unique.
Track listing
- Fuzzy Freaky (4:58)
- Miss America (4:19)
- A Soft Seduction (3:00)
- Dance on Vaseline (5:07)
- The Gates of Paradise (3:31)
- Amnesia (3:26)
- You Don’t Know Me (2:28)
- Daddy Go Down (4:06)
- Finite=Alright (2:24)
- Wicked Little Doll (2:54)
- Burnt By the Sun (4:21)
- The Civil Wars (3:41)
- Untitled Interlude (0:21)
- They Are in Love (4:08)
ll songs written by David Byrne and produced by Morcheeba Productions and Byrne, except where noted
Musicians
- Carlos Baptiste – violin
- Black Cat Orchestra – Lori Goldston, Russ Meltzer, Don Crevie, Scott Granlund, Kyle Hanson, Matthew Sperry, Joseph Zajonc, Ed Pias
- David Byrne – vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, loops
- Ed Calle – saxophone
- Lester Mendez – Keyboards & Programming on “Miss America”
- Gerald Casale – bass and background vocals on “Wicked Little Doll”
- Greg Cohen – bass guitar
- Paula Cole – background vocals
- Sterling Campbell – drums
- Joe Galdo – drums, percussion
- Juliet Haffner – viola
- Nicholas Holland – cello
- Ashley D. Horne – violin
- Pierre La Roux – fiddle
- Morcheeba: Skye Edwards, Paul Godfrey, and Ross Godfrey
- Mark Mothersbaugh – synthesizer and samples on “Wicked Little Doll”
- Hahn Rowe – keyboards
- Mark Saunders – keyboards
- Dana Teboe – trombone
- Betty Wright – background vocals
Technicians
- Michael Daube & Adele Lutz – Doll clothing
- Kat Egan & Veronica Gonzales – Production coordination
- Ted Jensen – Mastering
- Stefan Sagmeister – Design
- Tom Schierlitz – Photography
- Yuji Yoshimoto – Model design and construction
Notes
Released: June 17, 1997
Genre: Art rock, alternative rock
Length: 48:50
Producer(s): David Byrne, Black Cat Orchestra, Gerald Casale, Camus Celli, Joe Galdo, Lori Goldston, Andres Levin, Mark Mothersbaugh, Hahn Rowe, Mark Saunders, and Morcheeba production (Paul Godfrey, Ross Godfrey, and Pete Norris)
Label – Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.