The Feeling feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Leave Me Out Of It (Single Release) #thefeeling @SophieEB

As we look ahead to September and schools returning, it’s time for a lesson on singles marketing. This track came to my attention after it was performed live on the hilarious Lee Mack’s All Star Cast – an underrated Saturday evening show on the BBC about a month ago that I would call to be re-commissioned if this was a television rather than music site – and immediately grabbed me from that first listen. It was then performed live on ‘Popstar to Operastar’, which I only saw on YouTube, where they questionably mixed the song with some operatic vocals. I still can’t decide whether that worked or not.



Since then there’s been very little publicity about the song. Music websites are still reporting it’s out on the 22nd August but there hasn’t been a promo video created for it. On radio they have chosen to play the equally excellent ‘A Hundred Sinners (Come and Get It’) instead of this. So what has happened to this record?



In a world with justice, where fantastic indie songs were popular and not a string of reality stars or samey RnB hits, ‘Leave Me Out Of It’ would be number one material. It truly is a beautiful ballad with touching lyrics about failed love, played as a call and response between The Feeling lead singer Dan Gillespie Sales and solo performer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, the wife of fellow Feeling bandmate bassist Richard Jones.



There’s actually very little to fault about the track itself. The lyrics are well put together and touching, and delivered beautifully by the pair. Mix in an ethereal, haunting backing tune with interesting synths, some snazzy production tricks with African-style calls and breathy backing vocals, plus some memorable piano and guitar riffs, and you get the full package of an indie love hit. Then, three minutes in, Sophie’s key-change hits you and you realise this is, indeed, one of the songs of the year, even before it gets to the well-thumbed, but certainly well put together, chorus of ‘na-na-na’s.



Unfortunately this spilling of love for this track is moot as it seems to have dropped off the radar. It’s now available to download from your favourite music store from the album but the marketers have missed a track with this song. Smacking of last year’s decision to release Mika’s excellent ‘We Are Young’ from the film Kick-Ass six weeks after the film came into the cinema, thus confining it into the dustbin of history, the lack of marketing now for the record six weeks after it was all over the television and internet, beggars belief.



It’s such a shame that, when it comes to the consciousness of the public, someone has decided to, er, leave it out of it. A beautiful track that I can’t recommend highly enough and consider this the biggest marketing push for the record in the last few weeks.



Now excuse me while I go and tweet the Feeling and Sophie Ellis-Bextor to find out what’s happened to this record…