Times Like These (BMG) & Feeder: Just The Way I'm Feeling (Echo)

The lord above knows I have tried to like this sweet, sweet man’s seriously overrated band for lo these many years. So you can imagine my relief to finally locate a song whose tune doesn’t fall directly out of my head the instant I shut the thing off, probably because its classic early-’80s production (muscular; warm; streamlined) serves to further propel a tune with more hooks than a Newfoundland bait shop. It’s a career best in every way. Hooray! I now love this loveable, if heretofore third-rate, band like everybody else. I am no longer a monster.

Feeder, on the other hand... Listen, I’m trying.