Hear No Evil

The songwriting polarity of the Feelies was always fairly clear — Glen Mercer's tracks delivered the speedy post-punk jangle and frantic monotone vocals, while Bill Million's backed off into slow atmospherics and ringing arpeggios. With Wake Ooloo's debut LP, this becomes even clearer — thankfully, Mercer backs down from the mainstream excess that hampered the final Feelies albums and returns to more muscular indie sound that marked his Feelies compositions, and Hear No Evil turns out even more appealing than certain Feelies records. There's still a slight tendency toward rustic, mainstream pop lurking behind the indie jangle, though — Mercer's songs have a tendency to bear an odd resemblance to early Tom Petty, and this unfortunate quality only burgeoned on later Wake Ooloo records. This leaves Hear No Evil as their most appealing, if least polished, record.