Feels Good to Me
Feels Good to Me puts composition ahead of the usual expectations for a drummer's solo record. Bill Bruford leads a group with Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Dave Stewart on keyboards and Jeff Berlin on bass. Their music joins detailed jazz writing with a progressive rock background, giving each player room without making the album feel dominated by its leader.
The drum sound remains immediately distinctive. Crisp accents and changing rhythms provide movement, but Bruford's playing also leaves the others space. Stewart's keyboards and Berlin's mobile bass are important to the identity of the music. Holdsworth adds flowing guitar lines that can become melodic voices rather than simply filling a rock rhythm role.
Beelzebub begins with a busy pattern shared between percussion, bass and keyboards. The arrangement keeps moving as the guitar enters. Back To The Beginning takes a quieter opening into a more forceful setting, where Annette Peacock's unusual delivery adds another character. Her voice moves between speech and singing, sitting alongside the instruments in an unexpected way.
Sample And Hold provides another example of the group's restless writing. The musicians connect difficult lines while keeping the piece lively. This attention to structure gives the album more substance than a collection of elaborate solos would have.
Not every part is equally welcoming. Peacock's delivery can be puzzling, and the dense arrangements ask for patience before their shapes become familiar. The playing rewards that attention. Feels Good to Me brings together strong individual musicians without treating their abilities as the whole point. Its best passages combine rhythmic imagination, memorable voices and generous interplay.
