aaamusic | On 27, May 2012

There’s very little worse than discovering a good band and enjoying most of what you hear by them, then remembering you’re listening to their best of album. Sadly, or not – depending on how you look at it, this happened to me recently with a band called Cats and Cats and Cats. Their latest, and unfortunately their last, album is their best of, entitled ‘Catsalogue’. The 11 track album perfectly demonstrates their ability to create catchy songs with brilliant lyrics.
The first track, ‘Happiness for Lola’, is an instrumental. Given that I’d never heard of the band before I wasn’t sure whether to expect the rest of the album to be instrumental too – thankfully it’s not. That’s not to say, however, that this track is bad because it’s actually really good. It’s a bit rock-y and even a bit dance-y – the kind of slow dance track I’d imagine they’d play at the end of the night to cool everyone down. It’s also a bit folk-y and a bit pop-y. It’s practically impossible to dislike a song that successfully blends so many genres of music. Hats off to Cats and Cats and Cats for making it work!
‘A boy called haunts’ comes next. It was in this track that I first heard the male vocals of the band. If I’m honest, what I heard wasn’t impressive but it does somehow work with the brilliant songs – especially this one. What I loved most about this song was the way it made me do a little dance… Well, the most dancing you can do whilst sitting down. As for the lyrics, based on the songs that come after, I’m sure they were brilliant but if truth be told, every time I listened to this song I was too busy dancing to pay full attention to them.
The third track is called ‘Anchoress’ and by this point I was definitely thinking that vocals weren’t this bands strong point. Their instrument playing, however, is. Even with the not-so-fantastic vocals, the song still managed to sound amazing and it was a pleasure to listen to.
The next song, ‘Match of the Day’ managed to make me far happier than I anticipated. Why? Simply because there were choir-like vocals singing da’s and la’s. I don’t know about you, but I love when a song includes such anthemic vocals. It was a brilliant song although the end of the song threw me off a little bit; it didn’t seem like it was the end. I can’t explain it well but, given that you should definitely check this album out, you might see what I mean.
The fifth track goes by the name of ‘Sweet drunk everyone’. This is probably the best song on the album in terms of vocals. The song seemed slower than some of the other songs which, for me, is most definitely a good thing; it’s nice to break it up a little bit sometimes. The songs strong point was the way it would build up and then slow itself down. When most of the instruments stopped and it focussed on the singing, I was mildly surprised at how good it was. The singing was definitely the best it’s ever been on this track. The lyrics were really good too which helped to make this track one of my favourite on the album.
Sadly, in the next song – ‘If I’d had an atlas’ – we’re taken back to the not-so-good singing. Whenever I listened to this song, I couldn’t help but imagine myself singing along to it as loud as I could at a festival whilst baking in the sun. The lyrics were brilliant and the end reminded me a little of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack which can only ever be seen as a good thing!
For just over one minute 30 seconds, I thought this song was instrumental. I’m not that keen on instrumentals, they tend to bore me a little sometimes and I have to be in the mood to listen to them, so it was a pleasant surprise when the singing popped up. This song’s good but nothing much to scream about – probably because there wasn’t enough singing for my liking.
‘O’ Science’ comes next. This song had choir-like vocals at the beginning so I knew I was going to love it; however the rest of the song turned out. Luckily, the rest of the song is just as good. It’s another one of those songs you imagine yourself dancing to wildly at a festival. Better yet, the noises in the song made me laugh (when you listen, you’ll know what I mean). This song is probably one of the catchier ones on the album.
The next song began in a folky manner which pleased me somewhat. It also ended up becoming one of my favourites on the album. I’m not the biggest fan of albums – I usually find there’s one or two songs on an album (sometimes more) that I just can’t get to grips with, I just don’t like them. This is not the case with Catsalogue.
Track number 10 is an instrumental and, okay, I know I said I don’t like them but this one is amazing. It’s chilled without being too chilled. It’s something you can put on and relax to without getting to the stage where you don’t want to move or do anything else. There’s enough in it to give you the energy to move but it relaxes you too. Something everyone needs in this day and age!
Finally, we get to ‘Kites’. The lyrics in this song were probably what stood out to me most. They were amazing. They also proved that Cats and Cats and Cats are fantastic with lyrics. Okay, so singing’s probably not their strongest point – although the female vocal is actually quite good, it’s just not used very often – but they’re incredible at producing catchy, easy to listen to songs that are backed up by fantastic lyrics and good instrument playing.
It’s annoying that I’ll never see them gig because I actually quite like them. This album is worth checking out, whether you’re a fan of the band already or have never heard of them – you won’t regret it!

★★★★★

Melisa Greenfield