Feelings, released in 1997 through Luaka Bop & Warner (Bros.) Records, is the fourth solo album (and fifth studio album overall) by Scottish-American Alternative Rock musician David Byrne. Following the more straightforward rock sound of Byrne's self-titled 1994 album, this release returns to a more eclectic sound with greater emphasis on electronics, befitting the more variable styles that emerged in the American music scene following the decline of grunge. To aid this shift in approach, Byrne collaborated closely with English electronic group Morcheeba, who co-produced the album alongside Byrne and a variety of other guest producers. At the same time, the album would introduce noticeable orchestral elements on several tracks (especially the closer, "They Are in Love"), presaging the Baroque Pop sound that Byrne would lean into on his following albums.
Shortly before the album released, Byrne found himself butting heads with his old bandmates from Talking Heads, who were attempting a comeback without him as "the Heads." Byrne saw the band's name and that of their upcoming album, No Talking, Just Head, as an attempted cash grab in light of both Tom Tom Club and Jerry Harrison's solo career failing to get very far off the ground, and thus filed a trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit would be settled out of court, allowing the Heads to release and tour for their album in the fall of 1996. The feud with his ex-bandmates would reflect on the direction of Feelings, which released eight months after No Talking, Just Head, moving further away from the styles associated with Byrne's old band and closer into the art pop that would come to define his career in the 21st century.
On a more trivial note, the album is one of a select few that were released exclusively on HDCD, an early attempt at expanding the audio resolution of the Compact Disc format while still ensuring compatibility with ordinary CD players via special filters that compatible devices can switch off. The format never quite took off thanks to a mix of competition from other high-resolution audio disc formats and the rise of digital downloads and streaming in the 21st century, but the comparatively low costs of manufacturing HDCDs (thanks to it being simpler in design than the likes of SACD, DVD-Audio, DualDisc, etc.) ensure that new copies of Feelings are still encoded in the format.
Feelings was supported by one single: "Miss America". Remixes of "Fuzzy Freaky" and "Dance on Vaseline" were also included on Byrne's 1999 soundtrack album In Spite of Wishing and Wanting.
Tracklist:
- "Fuzzy Freaky" (4:59)
- "Miss America" (4:20)
- "A Soft Seduction" (3:01)
- "Dance on Vaseline" (5:08)
- "The Gates of Paradise" (3:31)
- "Amnesia" (3:26)
- "You Don't Know Me" (2:30)
- "Daddy Go Down" (4:07)
- "Finite=Alright" (2:24)
- "Wicked Little Doll" (2:55)
- "Burnt by the Sun" (4:21)
- "The Civil Wars" (3:40)
- Untitled Hidden Track (0:22)
- "They Are in Love" (4:09)
I'm not the only trope you've conquered:
- Alliterative Title: "Fuzzy Freaky", "A Soft Seduction".
- Anti-Love Song: "They Are in Love" revolves around a couple whose idea of love entails acting highly toxic towards with one another without a second thought.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: "Wicked Little Doll" features the line "make a little love, some parts are missing," aligning with the doll in Byrne's likeness that appears throughout the packaging.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Spanish-language lines in "Miss America" translate to "I've always trusted you; why do you treat me this way?", adding onto the lyrical themes that characterize the United States as a Femme Fatale.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: "The Gates of Paradise" describes God as trying to be benevolent towards mankind, but having such a decidedly otherworldly perception of right and wrong that it makes His will and man's will incompatible with one another.
- Bowdlerise: The single release of "Miss America" skips over the entire fourth verse, owed to the f-bomb that it builds up to.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: The narrator of "Miss America" mentions stumbling on the title character when "your pants are 'round your ankles." Tying in with the lyrics that depict her as a Femme Fatale, the line implies that the narrator caught her while she was... amending her Constitution, to put it mildly, with this vulnerable moment being the reason why she stays with him.
- Concept Album: True to its title, Feelings centers around one's own emotions and the ways they are processed.
- Colour-Coded Emotions: The album art associates each emotion with a different color: blue is neutral, red is angry, green is exasperated, and yellow is happy.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Feelings is an album full of songs with emotionally-driven subject matter.
- Face on the Cover: A bare-chested plastic doll in Byrne's likeness; the doll also appears throughout both the rest of the album packaging and the "Miss America" video.
- Femme Fatale: "Miss America" uses this an extended metaphor. America is a woman who seduces men, then tosses them aside once she no longer needs them.
- Genre Roulette: The album runs through a variety of different forms of electronic rock, including chillout ("Fuzzy Freaky"), Latin dance ("Miss America"), Drum and Bass ("The Gates of Paradise"), chanson ("They Are in Love"), and even grunge ("The Civil Wars"). This is highlighted by the music video for "Miss America", which features Byrne acting out imagery commonly associated with various genres that were popular in 1997.
- Good Is Not Nice: "The Gates of Paradise" focuses on how God runs on a system of Blue-and-Orange Morality, such that what He defines as good entails harsh actions towards humanity. Conversely, it notes in the last verse how a lot of people with good intentions end up being too cruel towards their fellow humans to effectively make their way into Heaven.
- Gratuitous Panning: "Finite = Alright" closes with the instruments panning into the right channel, with the left channel being filled by the sound of a dog barking.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Fitting its Latin dance sound, "Miss America" features two Spanish-language lines in the bridge; the rest of the bridge — and the song — is in English.I love America
Yo siempre he confiado en ti
I love America
¿Por qué me tratas así? - Hidden Track: An untitled 22-second interlude appears between "The Civil Wars" and "They Are in Love"; the only hint that it's there is the fact that the tracklist on the back skips from 12 to 14.
- Instrumental: The untitled thirteenth track, not that there's a great deal of lyrics that could fit within most 22-second songs anyways.
- Ludd Was Right: "Dance on Vaseline" notes how the future is "lousy science fiction," comparing it to a poison that the body rapidly absorbs.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "They Are in Love" is a mellow, cheery-sounding piece about a dysfunctional and mutually abusive couple.
- The Masochism Tango: "They Are in Love" describes a couple whose daily lives together center around slighting one another, including stealing each other's drugs, physically harming one another, and going AWOL for extended periods of time, yet all the while they're still somehow in love.
- Miniscule Rocking: The untitled thirteenth track doesn't even crack half a minute.
- New Sound Album: Electronic rock in a variety of permutations, with prominent influences from Trip Hop and Alternative Dance.
- No Title: The hidden thirteenth song officially goes without a title.
- One-Word Title: Feelings, "Amnesia".
- Packaged as Other Medium: The album packaging, designed by Stefan Sagmeister, is meant to resemble the box for a (nonexistent) David Byrne action figure. This results in the inlay including the comedic disclaimer "David Byrne doll not included."
- Prophet Eyes: Several shots in the "Miss America" music video depict Byrne as a '50s televangelist with cloudy, grayish-white eyes, riffing on American religious leaders that depict themselves as modern prophets.
- Record Producer: The album features more producers on it than any of Byrne's other studio albums, at a whopping nineteen people across fourteen tracks. In addition to himself and the members of Morcheeba (specifically Paul Godfrey, Ross Godfrey, and Pete Norris), the album also features production work by Joe Galdo, Hahn Rowe, Mark Saunders, Andres Levin, Camus Celli, Mark Mothersbaugh and his Devo bandmate Jerry Casale, and the Black Cat Orchestra (Lori Goldsten, who gets a separate credit, Russ Meltzer, Don Crevie, Scott Granlund, Kyle Hanson, Matthew Sperry, Joseph Zajonc, and Ed Pias).
- Remix Album: One year after Feelings released, Byrne put out The Visible Man, a collection of nine remixes of six songs off of the original album. The album was initially handed out exclusively at live shows on the supporting tour for Feelings, with the remaining copies being sold on Byrne's official website.
- Sampling: "Fuzzy Freaky" takes its percussion track from Cristiano de André's "Nel Bene e Nel Male"; André receives a songwriting credit and a special acknowledgement in the liner notes as a result.
- Self-Deprecation: The album title and packaging riff on Byrne's reputation at the time as emotionless and standoffish; he would eventually learn that he was autistic over a decade later.
- Shmuck Bait: The CD itself has a big arrow on it, and the tray insert has a wheel of colors, corresponding to different emotions. There's a note encouraging the listener to break the CD spindle and spin the disc to "determine your feelings". For anyone who doesn't get the joke, there's a warning that doing this repeatedly may or may not scratch the CD beyond repair (to say nothing of the case being rendered useless until the tray is replaced).
- Shout-Out:
- "Miss America" namedrops Dirty Harry and Teenage Fanclub.
- "Finite=Alright" namedrops Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. The song also mentions Hendrix playing his song "House Burning Down".
- Special Guest:
- Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale of Devo provide backing parts on "Wicked Little Doll". Mothersbaugh provides synthesizer and sample parts, while Casale plays bass and sings backing vocals.
- The Black Cat Orchestra provide the backing instrumental on "They Are in Love".
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The chorus of "The Gates of Paradise" describes how "terrorists are acting out of love, sweet love, to bring us home again."
- The X of Y: "The Gates of Paradise"
