Chicken Feed - 'Finding Jim' (Blue Eye) Released 03/07/06

Chicken Feed is one man, apparently known as Chief Chicken. A session musician in the industry for many years, he has worked with (in what must be a first) both The Fall and Victoria Beckham. ‘Finding Jim’ is his first work as a solo artist and it’s… well OK -  an album of largely ambient spacey music assembled form electronic beats, keyboards and guitar, his own vocals featuring largely in the mix. Where he's from has not been discerned but he's possessed of a flat seemingly northern vocal style which manages to be uncannily reminiscent of every single male singer from the north you've ever heard of at different times.

The most obvious comparsion though would be Badly Drawn Boy particularly on opener ‘I Can See It In You’ whose lyrical questioning "I can see it in you can you see it in me?” echoes Daman Gough's blokey direct, sensitivity. Musically it’s a lazy laid back with gentle acoustic strumming and bird noises. It’s alright, but some of the other songs on here in the same vein are a bit dreary. The likes of 'Turn Around' and 'This Is Love' are ambient floaty chilledness with repeated simple vocal phrases and are a bit overlong and repetitive. It's one of those strange things of electro music that sometimes the most repetitive music can get away with being the longest when its genious stuff but these tracks don't quite achieve such levels. Also they do show that such dry, deadpan vocals really need to be sweetened by melody and inventiveness in the music as they usually are in something like Badly Drawn Boy. 

There is some better stuff here. When Feed's vocals are withdrawn on the instrumental 'Another John' the result is a stately beautiful and melodic Pink Floyd type piece, possibly a requiem for someone? 'Why You Have To Sell My Soul?' is the standout track, a funky dance number built around a insistent, repeated squelch electro 'da da da' riff, it effects the same breezy cool of Hot Chip though it's not quite that good. 'Realisation' which has very Ian Brown esque vocals is similarly constructed but once you've heard 'Why You Have To…' you don’t really need to hear it.

'Skyleidascope' is pretty effective a moody, darkier track, perhaps evoking a bad trip and with Feed's vocals  better suited and sounding (no really) a  bit Chris Rea Road to Hell.  By the final tracks 'Sifting For Gold' and 'Straight Lines' he's starting to sound like Jarvis Cocker. They're pleasant enough but not incredible memorable. 

There's plenty of songs here that heard in isolation would make the discerning listener want to check out a bit more of Chicken Feed but the album as a whole is a bit hit an miss. So not Posh Spice but not quite Mark E Smith either yet.