RATING: RRRRR
Review by Alan Holloway
Cats In Space are not your common or
garden moggies stuffed into a space suit. These kitties are purebred
rock and roll, releasing four studio albums so far that have showed a
great talent for writing catchy hooks and bringing the best of 70s
glam and pop kicking and screaming into today's MP3 players.
'Kickstart The Sun' is their second album with seasoned stage singer
Damian Edwards, but the first that was actually written with him, and
there's a lot of cat fans out there holding their breath in the hope
that the chemistry demonstrated on 'Atlantis' will blossom even more
here.
One thing they haven't done is lost any
ambition, with 'Kickstart The Sun' rolling in at around sixty five
minutes. Of course, the danger with this is there's plenty of room
for songs that perhaps should have been culled, but I have to say
that of the thirteen full songs here (plus shorter opening and
closing tracks) there really aren't any that I feel the urge to skip.
The title track is split into three
parts, with a minute long album intro joined by a two minute reprise
at the end. The main song site nicely in the middle, six minutes of
panic and hope as the intrepid catstronauts try to get the sun
working again, thus saving the world! The album itself starts with a
triple helping of absolute 'proper' Cats In Space bangers, with
opener 'King Of The Stars' managing to make seven minutes seem like
three, so upbeat, guitar fuelled and catchy it is. First single 'Poke
The Witch' follows, a really catchy and quite quirky satire on modern
life, with second dingle 'Teenage Millionaires' after that, a guitar
led song with an irresistibly catchy chorus and more melody that a
Top Of The Pops compilation album.
At this point, it's quite clear that
Damien is well and truly part of the band, really searching for new
peaks in each vocal performance, the climbing them with seeming ease.
'Goodbye To The American Dream' follows, playing very well to his
stage strengths, a story led track that starts slow but has a chorus
with bounce and a few horns that balances out the slower verses
perfectly. The first ballad is '1,000,00 Miles', about being stuck in
your spaceship and missing a special someone. The simple, mostly
piano, accompaniment allows Damien to carry the whole thing on his
own talents and it's a beautiful song that would have fitted nicely
on Styx's 'The Mission' album. 'Fifty One Pillow Bed' is a much more
typical 'Cats-lite' effort, just a simple, catchy and fun love song
in the same vein as 'Magic Loving Feeling' from the last album. It
may not be deep or emotional, but it's a cracking mid paced song that
does exactly what you want, from the rich vocals to the uplifting
guitar solo in the middle.
'Charlie's Ego' may well be my
favourite here, even though it's really a three minute piece of fun
about a faded star who doesn't get much work these days but is still
a big star in his head. I love the lyrics, the bouncy keyboards and
the fact that Damien gets to sing a verse as Charlie himself, totally
changing his voice as he does so. It's a type of song that Cats In
Space do so well, like 'Sunday Best' from the last album, and sounds
like something from a really fun musical. After the excellent,
layered title track, 'A Big Balloon' continues the space theme that
is in several songs, though it's a relaxing, acoustic track that
feels just right after the heroics of the previous one. 'Smoke &
Mirrors' brings back the bounce and a real seventies feel at the same
time.
'Hero' is the most sparse track on the
album, a slow track with only piano behind Damien, allowing him to
really go for it on the emotion and power stakes, and it's genuinely
breathtaking to listen to , another that you can imagine being
performed on stage. The album closes with a couple of more upbeat
songs, and 'Last Dance Saloon' is the most ELO song that ELO never
recorded, something that's quite deliberate. It's a fine, upbeat song
that shines in part due to the wonderful keyboards that blend with
the bouncy guitar solo. A proper crown pleaser, I can see this one
being a real hit in concert, though it's certainly got plenty of
competition elsewhere to get on the set list. Final track before the
title track reprise is one the band themselves are VERY proud of,
'Bootleg Bandoleros'. At eight minutes it's the longest song here,
but as with 'King Of The Stars' it at no point outstays it's welcome,
telling the story of those who would nick creatives hard work, from
the time when home taping was killing music to the seeders and
downloaders of today. There's a South American feel to the flamenco
acoustic guitar, giving way to electric at the three minutes forty
mark, at which point the song gets a nice injection of energy though
still isn't afraid of an introspective moment or two. Of course,
there's a cool guitar solo, too, as well as a section for the crowd
to stamp their feet and clap. This one's got it all, folks!
I thought that Cats In Space would find
it hard to follow up the excellent 'Atlantis', but with 'Kickstart
The Sun' they've actually surpassed it. An album that mixes emotion,
storytelling, seriousness and simple fun equally well, resulting in a
whole that works on a great many levels, musically. At it's heart,
though, it's a Cats In Space album, and if you've ever enjoyed what
they've put out before this is a must buy.
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