After this you'll be craving a bit of Wham
Electronic music is often a lot like French cuisine – a lot of extras laid on to compensate for something that is bland or unsubstantial. There are the obvious benefits in that you can record an album or single largely as a one person unit and not suffer any of the pitfalls of multi-instrumentalists and realise your sound without any distractions of other, less caring musicians. It is a two edged sword and one that many bands or artists get on the wrong side of.
Chicken Feed – real name Michael Boddy – was playing keyboards for the likes of Bryan Ferry and Posh Spice prior to becoming an artist in his own right. For this reason alone, "Inside The Machine", his second full length release, should be viewing with a sense of strong surprise and mild delight. Would can only suspect that watching Victoria Beckham's hackneyed, weedy vocals for sessions of singles that were never released other than internet leaks for people to laugh at gave Boddy the feeling that he himself could do better.
And you know what? "Inside The Machine" is better than anything that the former Spice Girl has ever done. It's all better than the majority of shit that Roxy Music's sometime frontman has released in what seems like decades. Unfortunately, that's hardly the competition that Chicken Feed is up against. Because while "Inside The Machine" does make for a reasonable listen, it does not light the fires of excitement, of feeling that this is something that is great.
"Inside The Machine" does its job well. Each track sounds unique enough to save the album from a ten track swamp of electro beats and jangly guitars, and there are a fair few pop hooks that cannot help but impress. The downplayed title track with its spooky, Portishead-esque rhythm and off-kilter vocals impresses, as does the thoughtful wistfulness of "All The Cards". What puts the mockers on the album is simply that there is no other mood on offer apart from maudlin. A happy song here or a lively one there would have made this into a great record, but, a it stands, this is much more likely, by the end, the have induced its fair share of yawns.
And its a shame too, because "Inside The Machine" does do what it does very well indeed. With a little more variety and a little more humour and heart this would come with a high recommendation. But in an age where you can listen to epic recordings by Spiritualized and self deprecating classics by The Beta Band, the world has little place for Chicken Feed. This need not always be the case, but until Michael Boddy lets the sunshine in his life, this is adequate but ultimately unnecessary.