There are 3,500 miles between the cultural capitals of New York and Paris, and the distance can feel impossible to swim. But if you have a lively imagination and the proclivity to remain in bed, all you have to do is close your eyes and turn on The Feeling of Love's “I'm Leaving You Today.” The French psyched-up garage band released their second studio album, Reward Your Grace, this week on Born Bad Records, and while wearing a pair of child's goggles and floaties, I've listened to it dozens of times already. Their influences are rooted in the deft awareness of 70s garage rock with a touch of paranoid psychedelia, but the band's reigning achievement is the shrewd clarity of their sound. “I'm Leaving You Today” is a minor-key mind cleaner, shrouded in a manipulative, cruel organ pulses and reverb that echoes for days and miles. The song touches down with Guillaume Marietta pleading that “There's too much music for me” in a nasally whine that only serves to endear. Three solid hits on the toms and a subtle tap-tap-tap on a ride cymbal take us out of the song, blindsiding us geographically. Were we just in New York or Paris?
The band is playing shows in Europe, but if we close our eyes and imagine swimming on a wave of shoegazey pop daze, we can watch them perform in our dreams. Buy the new record, Reward Your Grace, at this link.
