Prior to releasing his first solo album in 2003, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Neil Cleary was a tangential figure amidst the remnants of the Elephant 6 scene, playing on albums by the Essex Green and Bill Doss’ post Olivia Tremor Control solo project the Sunshine Fix, as well as a stint in the Kindercore mod-revival supergroup the Four Corners. Afterwards, he worked as Massachusetts-based folk-blues singer/songwriter Erin McKeown’s drummer. But before any of that, in 1997, the New England native recorded a one-man band solo project under the name Stupid Club. Lacking both the countryish tinge of his later solo records and the chamber pop and psych elements of his Elephant 6 cohorts, Made to Feel is a simple, homemade-sounding D.I.Y. indie pop record very much of its time and place. Comparisons to power pop cult figures like Allen Clapp and Chris Von Sneidern are appropriate, but unfortunately, Cleary at this point in his career wasn’t a tunesmith on the level of either. Though by the time of his second solo album, 2007′s I Was Thinking of You the Whole Time, Cleary had matured into a clever lyricist with a strong line in memorable melodies along the lines of Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, Made to Feel is larded with songs like the superfluous 90-second acoustic mumble “Onion,” the misguided semi-heavy rocker “Guys with Guns,” and the repetitive, forgettable “Candy Music.” There are definite high points to the album, such as the sunny, trumpet-accented “Very California Vibe” and the brisk indie pop rush of “Think Safety,” but Made to Feel is an uneven record mostly of interest to fans of Cleary’s later, superior solo records and die-hard collectors of Elephant 6 ephemera. – Stewart Mason