Originally published by L.S. Media. April 23rd 2012. 
L.S. Media Rating *****
The lyrics to the title track of the album Generation Freakshow sums up the new release by Feeder perfectly. Listen very carefully and it becomes more than a chant of denial from a lost generation and those that have led the way like a pied piper playing tunes that betray them and will lead them not to a salvation but to a despondency that is palpable throughout this incredible album.
Following on from the 2010 release Renegades, which in itself was sleek and edgy, it could have been paved with good intentions but ultimately fall at the final hurdle, thankfully though it has stood its ground and sees the faith placed in it by Grant Nicholas and Taka Hirose to delay the release date briefly as a measure of maturity in a world where time is precious, however so is getting the exact right vibe on an album.
The eighth studio album by the band is gritty in parts and yet not without its sense of humour, black as is it as the band urge to listeners to ‘find out what the kids know’. Well if the ‘kids’ like this album they are in good company and for once the world that normally separates the different generations will be blurred and mixed and the result will be astonishing and will see Welsh Rock music dominate into the next decade as they pretty much have for the last 30 years which started with The Alarm and continued with Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Lostprophets.
It is easy to see where the mind-set of the band has been the last couple of years and in songs such as Children of the Sun with its melancholy backbeat and sensitive lyrics and allusions to personal loneliness, deprivation and alienation and the excellent In All Honesty, which has its sound based firmly tongue in cheek in the band’s past but with a more dynamic kick and reflection to what has passed.
After all, everyone needs space to breathe. Take time to listen to this new album from one of the finest of their own generation as they have come of age.
Ian D. Hall