Feeder/ Renegades

Feeder
Renegades
(Big Teeth Music)

25 hit singles, 4.5 million record sales, and I'd imagine one or two hits on Myspace too. Either Feeder have got a ridiculously proactive mum, or you're currently standing less than 20ft away from one of their fans.
Like many people, I developed an allergic reaction to Grant and co sometime around the time of "CD Player! Player! Player!" but if they have one thing going for them, it's that, rather like the lizards who survived the Prehistoric era to walk among the humans, they're weirdly indestructible.
As you can imagine, this 7th album is full of polished hard rock songs, duets between singer Grant and singer Grant (albeit a singer Grant who's transmitting through a crap radio) and fuzzy riffs which, for some reason, I can't remember now they've stopped playing.
That said, there are cheesy thrills to be had: Grant appears to have lost his way home in the aptly titled 'Home' - and spends the song asking "is it the right way? Is it the right way home?" like some kind of mad geriatric. Get a sat nav, Grant!
Meanwhile, the single 'Call Out' is quite good fun: it's the kind of tune you’ll love to hate after approximately its ten thousandth radio play.
Putting a Feeder album in front of a critic is rather like dropping your hamster into a swimming pool full of Piranha - and although I have tried to be kind (the saint that I am) it's hard to get on with a band whose main virtue is conservatism.
Despite all this, I can't write off Feeder entirely: sometimes it's nice to have lizards around, even if it is just for a bit of species continuity.