Just as
the Feelies slowly dropped their indie indiosyncracies and drifted into a sadly mainstream pop sound, so goes Glen Mercer's
Wake Ooloo --
Stop the Ride may be more polished than the band's previous releases, but this polish lends to the development of a homey jangle that's in danger of bordering on the rustic end of bad radio fare. As unfortunate as it is to use
Tom Petty's early albums as a reference to a post-
Feelies project, the comparison is oddly accurate -- anyone who's familiar with
the Feelies will most probably want to put down
Stop the Ride with a little sigh and turn back to Crazy Rhythms, the piece of absolute brilliance that none of
the Feelies' later work can seem to rival. ~ Nitsuh Abebe