Album: Time For a Witness
Year: 1991
It goes to just how fucking great of a year for music 1991 was that The Feelies could release an album equally as good as their previous three and barely crack my top 20 for that year.
But so it was with Time For a Witness, the last album The Feelies would record for nearly twenty years, and as good of a record they ever made.
What made Time For a Witness for me were the three songs smack dab in the middle: the nervous, jittery “Sooner or Later,” the long psychedelic ramble “Find a Way,” and the slinky mid-tempo “Decide.”
On “Decide,” The Feelies came up with a groove that was almost sexy, or at least as sexy as a band that specialized in drone was ever going to get, with Brenda Sauter’s bass peaking around every corner looking to smack Bill Million’s rhythm guitar on the ass, and then running away.
Meanwhile, Glen Mercer’s lead guitar was doing everything it could possibly do to get everybody’s attention from the get go, kicking out laser leads and noisy solos. It all comes together during the one and only chorus, when Mercer sings:
Decide
what side
You’re on
Decide
What side
You’re on
Decide
what side
You’re on
Decide
What side
You’re on
You’re on
You’re onnnnnnnnnnn
You’re onnnnnnnnnnn
You’re onnnnnnnnnnn
And naturally, the side I’m on is whichever side gives me more songs like “Decide”
“Decide”