Feeder

Nicholas and drummer Jon Lee came from Wales, with Japanese bassist Taka Hirose completing the original trio. The early Swim release preceded Polythene in 1997, whose songs included High and Tangerine. The guitars carried a pronounced American alternative-rock influence, but the writing already had a strong instinct for a clear melodic line within the noise.

Yesterday Went Too Soon followed in 1999. Echo Park in 2001 brought a broader breakthrough, led by Buck Rogers and Seven Days in the Sun. Buck Rogers is unusually economical: an instantly recognisable guitar figure, a comic opening detail and a chorus that arrives with almost no wasted movement. The record could be exuberant without requiring every song to have the same bright emotional temperature.

Jon Lee died in 2002. Comfort in Sound was recorded in the aftermath, with Gil Norton producing, and songs such as Just the Way I'm Feeling, Come Back Around and the title track gave the band a different kind of reach. The arrangements could still be forceful, but the softer passages carried a greater share of the emotional argument.

It would be reductive to hear that entire album only through biography. Its musical choices are persuasive in their own right: acoustic textures, a carefully judged band swell and melodies allowed time to develop. The contrast with Echo Park captures a central strength of Nicholas' writing, which can preserve the shape of a straightforward rock song while changing what the listener feels inside it.