Comfort in Sound - Reception

Reception

While being well received by critics, it also had a similar response commercially. The album started off as a sleeper release, entering at #6 before dropping out of the top 75 after only four weeks, before then charting at #178 on the 2002 year-end charts selling just under 100,000 units. It later became a sleeper hit, as after the release of "Just the Way I'm Feeling", the album experienced a boost in chart fortunes, before it charted at #66 in the 2003 end of year charts, and also peaked at #13 during the course of the year on the weekly listing spending a total of 36 weeks in the top 75 after its last chart visit in February 2005. It on the also spawned a major radio and TV play hit in which "Just the Way I'm Feeling" gained over 15,000 UK radio plays and charted at #10 on the UK singles chart, following up "Come Back Around" which charted at #14. Their Glastonbury appearance was very well received by the press, and given partial live coverage on BBC Three and the full set on BBC Radio 1 later in the year. Despite infamous negative comments from Lauren Laverne on BBC Three's late-night coverage regarding the band and age range of the bands fanbase (both views strongly disagreed on by the fans), many critics and attendees to the festival gave their performance a positive response.

The album quickly dropped out of the top 75 after entering at #6 spending only four weeks on the chart. It would not be until the airplay release of "Just the Way I'm Feeling" that the album re-entered the top 75 before making a top 40 re-entry the following week. On single release week the album re-entered the top 20 and then in two weeks climbed to its second re-entry peak of #13. The album then spent an uninterrupted number of 12 weeks on the top 75 bringing the total up to 16. It would not be until the release of "Forget About Tomorrow" that the album would re-enter the top 75, peak at #21 on its second re-entry and this time spend 10 weeks on the top 75 bringing the total up to 26 weeks; "Forget About Tomorrow" would meanwhile chart at #12. After a brief one-week re-entry, the single release of "Find the Colour" (which charted at #24) and a limited CD/DVD version of the album was released, the album re-entered for a three week spell peaking at #45 bringing the total up to 30. 2004 at first seen a one-week re-entry, with the album missing out on two extra weeks when it stalled at #76 twice in a row. The album then made its last ever chart entry to date when it spent five weeks on the top 75 peaking at #41 due to the then forthcoming release of Pushing the Senses. It is often disputed if the band peaked or not with the success of Comfort in Sound.

The band's reputation was highly risen, and turned them in to an act who were playlisted on the radio due to their public response, rather than the playlist departments of the respective stations opinions of the songs. This seen the album's fifth single, being the title track despite only being available to a limited quantity of 3,000 copies on the arena tour (and a limited download), playlisted on Radio 1's B-List despite its non-commercial availability. The album itself made enough grossings from sales alone, which enabled it to be profitable after the costs spent on the album were recouped. The album also sold more than expected by their record label Echo, after previous albums at the time sold in the region of 150,000 copies on average per release, with Echo originally pressing 100,000 units for the first week of release. As a result, despite not winning their Brit Award nomination for "Best British Rock", Feeder seen their then latest album become a commercial success, with Echo pressing four times more copies to meet demand helping the occurrence of the first ever profit-making year in the Echo label's then nine year history of 6.3 million pounds, although the label intended to be a non-profit company with financial support from their owners Chrysalis. This as a result influenced Echo to run as a profit-making business instead, and upstreamed the value of the company. According to Music Week sales of Comfort in Sound stood at 436,000 in early February 2005, before it was reported by the same publication in late April 2012, that the sales were on 503,706; an increase of over 64,000 sales during this period.

Due to the album having a slow start, charting at a low position on the annual albums chart, and selling 64,000 copies between 2005-2012 without re-entering the charts, Comfort in Sound became a sleeper hit.

Touring was also a then peak for the band, in which they played a UK sell-out 21 date tour in March–April 2003 in front of 55,000 people, which also aided the albums chart longetivity. The success of the tour followed by their main stage debut at Glastonbury (they were third on the final day's bill), influenced them to play an arena tour at the end of the year. Although the tour was not a sell-out, they sold out their Bournemouth International Centre gig, sold a wide majority of the tickets for the Birmingham National Indoor Arena gig and got mostly positive reviews by the music press for the shows that were covered.