Alex Gardner - Feeling Fine

Scottish pop newcomer, Alex Garner, is back to release his second single 'Feeling Fine' after his last chart attempt with 'I'm Not Mad' flopped at #44. Despite many having high hopes for the Gardner, is would seem that his latest attempt may just suffer the same fate.


With a bouncing pop intro, Alex initially bursts into a round of the track's chorus, and it's here where the issues begin. His vocals are over produced to the point where it is difficult to distinguish what Gardner is actually singing about, apart from, of course, the title words to the track "feeling fine."


As we reach the verses however, it is evident that Gardner does have talent and a rather unique voice, although there will be comparisons to the vocals of the rather more well know Scot singer Paolo Nutini. Garner's vocals are soulful and enjoyable to listen to, but teamed with the full on auto-tuned chorus, the verses feel as if they belong to another song.


It is blindingly obvious that Alex's voice is indescribably better without the use of computers to jazz it up and it's a shame that this has been overused to the track's detriment. The chorus itself is ok, but as well as not being clear enough suffers from being too short to present a major hook. With any other chorus, this song could have been 100% better, and it's sad that Gardner's management have taken him down this route when his material could have been so much more believable.


Just when you think the song couldn't suffer from reckless mismatching any more, the breakdown of the track creeps up. Does it seem to fit with either part of the track, the electro driven chorus or soulful verse? No. In fact, Alex seems to breakdown into something that closely resembles a rap, spitting lyrics so fast that neither the verses nor chorus have any relevance to.


The track could have had hit potential, as the backing music is good and worthy of a better lyricist. Gardner needs to find a sound he is comfortable with and stick to it, as this blend of sounds is just too much to handle in a four minute song. Whilst he obviously has talent, it is not shown here and he will need more than his pretty boy looks to shift sales.


3/10 - Ice.