Cats and Cats and Cats - If I Had An Atlas (Fiction)
3/5
By: Ben Smith
Five years after Cats and Cats and Cats got together, they finally release their debut LP on the rightly lauded Fiction imprint. The forward thinking London pop group are made up of five, listing their influences as Arcade Fire, Beirut and Neutral amongst others.
Although charmingly upbeat with clever arrangements and rhythms bouncing along to weird guitar chords, violins, string sections, trumpets and more, many are likely to have issue with the more matter of fact lyrics here. For instance, ‘The Boy With The Beak’ even includes the line ‘I’m not a singer – well we both know that’. And the vocals here, as they admit, are often not up to much. But bands with rubbish singers are nothing new – it’s worked for everyone from The Clash to The Cribs. And as with those bands, there’s still plenty to like about Cats and Cats and Cats.
Opening track ‘If I Had Antlers’ flows through so many emotions within four and a half minutes, the initial upbeat guitar and drum fight turning into a slow sad vocal over drawn out strings and knowingly poetic lyrics. It builds into an anthemic indie chant with a new wave disco element. Confused? Totally. Entertained? You will be.
This seems to be the formula throughout this unpredictable album – it changes at random with instruments whizzing in and out, and clanking guitars, vocal chants and unusual time signatures abound. Could you expect anything less idiosyncratic from a band named Cats and Cats and Cats?
It’s the aforementioned seven minute epic ‘The Boy with The Beak’ that stands as the highlight of the album for me, if just for the beautiful intro. Like all their best songs, this goes places you couldn’t predict, and you’re better off sitting back and enjoying the journey this frustratingly beautiful band take you on rather than questioning it. There are elements that hold extreme charm, others that are awkward, some verge on embarrassment and others pure beauty. It’s like a summer party in a vintage music junkyard.
Artists in this article: Cats & Cats & Cats
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