Review Summary: Just another Indie Rock Album
Patrick Carney gathered up 4 other Ohio based drummers and the five of them whipped up this album, Feel Good Together. The five of them demonstrate on this album that they have skills beyond the drum set, and do not seem out of place on their instruments. Carney can lay down some cool basslines and Jon Finley's voice fits the Indie Rock mold pretty well. The problem with this album is that it isn't daring enough, and seems content with just fitting in with the norms of Indie Rock. This can be expected when all of the members but one are switching to instruments that are secondary at the least. It's like when a person speaks his secondary language; even if he knows the secondary language well he uses simpler words and his goal is merely to be understood. Carney and company are capable with their instruments but are unable to show anything except an average understanding of them. There isn't anything that makes them a special band at all. They're pretty average, and so is the album, which is why it gets a 2.5.
The album does have it's moments. Good Golly is a quite uplifting song with a very catchy chorus. All of the songs are pretty uplifting in fact, but they're also pretty boring unfortunately. The title track was pretty difficult to listen to because it seemed to be 3:32 of the same sound throughout. The bizarre names for a majority of the tracks, such as Lottery Dust and Connect to Lounge, show that the band do not take themselves too seriously, and they shouldn't because they're not good enough to release multiple albums. This was a project that the 5 members probably had a lot of fun with. They likely were not looking to make an album that is an all time great, just something that shows they're capable of creating music. And I can say that they proved through this release that at least that is true.
It is not impossible for someone to love this album, but it seems more likely to me that it would be hard to listen to more than a few times. It's way too redundant and lacks creative. There isn't a lack of technicality at all, which might be a problem people would expect when band members aren't playing their primary instruments. It's just that they do not understand how to make great music using their secondary instruments. As we know, musical technicality does not precipitate great music. There needs to be something special there, and unfortunately there isn't here.
