[Loveless]

It's a beautiful album to listen to. The full band features more than on Polichinelle. There's great use of instruments, melody, strong lyrics and Emmett's ever soulful voice.

I get a great feeling of optimism when I listen to it. It's very uplifting to me anyway. In Freud's book, "Civilization and its Discontents" he described the 'oceanic feeling' as a sensation of 'eternity,' a feeling of something limitless, unbounded or 'oceanic.' This feeling he believed was the source of religious energy.

"Protest songs and rebirth / Are in and out of fashion / As if fashion created the earth"
- Upside Down

A lot of people have Polichinelle as their favourite album but I seem to gravitate towards Oceanic Feeling more often. Whereas their second release grabs your still-beating heart and throws it to the floor in despair, their debut is like a warm comforting arm around your shoulder.

Oh, and it's impossibly hard to find.

It has some up-tempo songs like 'Stopping The World', 'Don't Make Me Breath You In' and 'Upside Down' and there are some songs like 'Out Of Mind', 'Still Only One' and the epic 'Mercy' that just wander off to a different space and find their way home through some skillful navigation from the helm of the Prayer Boat. The gentle 'Millionaire Hero' and 'Hunger For The Beautiful' join the gaps tripping along on their own good vibes and positivity.

If you're looking for contemporary comparisons you could site the influence maybe of R.E.M. circa Green era, the Blue Nile or closer to home perhaps Van Morrison.


"We walk in Autumn's temple, her church of gold and crystal air, her beauty makes me small, It touches me inside, it touches you inside, I know you feel it too by these invisible lines, that tie me to you"
- Hunger For The Beautiful