“Cats on Fire” Review

The best over-looked record of 2009, hyperbole? Maybe. However, for my money I can’t think of a better jangle pop, Smiths-influenced album made in the last ten years or so. And what an album it is, almost anachronistic in that respect, for an indie pop album to be recorded without the noise that has been currently swirling around most of these productions. And yeah, there’s no synth-y dance-influenced stuff here, no just straight pop with guitar, drums, a bass, and sometimes a few strings or organ to change things up now and then. Frankly, it’s a simple but great pop album, from Finns no less!

Lead song on the disc, “Horoscope” captures the melodic template that the rest of the album will follow. However, unlike most albums that do this, it’s not a horrible, reductive thing here. It’s not ten pop songs that sound the same, it’s rather ten great pop songs, that are each great enough to put the memory of the last behind you.

But back to “Horoscope” for a second, which is a rollicking, literate, piece of work. Served by it’s twangy guitar and up beat strings, along with pessimistic lyrics about not believing in “happy ever afters”, one almost forgets about the less noticeable but equally important work being done by the drummer and bassist. The drummer keeps a mellow beat through-out the whole thing, beating hard when it must be done, and keeping it slow when it needs to be kept slow. The bassist effectively grounding the song, but not in a boring way yet in a way you don’t need to know it’s there, but it is.

However, this isn’t a review of one song, and it would be a travesty to make it that. Since this album is brimming to the top with great songs that shift from Belle and Sebastian bits of beauty “Never Sell The House” to Comets on Fire sounding scruffy jangle such as “Lay Down Your Arms” and “Tears in Your Cup”.

Another great thing about this album is that the lead singer Mattias Björkas sings in a way that is not too twee-grating and at the same time not so obviously masculine. The man sometimes harmonizes with himself, which is incredible in itself, but when put to such work on the lyrics he uses such as “Expel the Marxist ghost”, (you know lyrics with actual meanings) the work becomes even better.

With an album this good it’s a travesty that Cats on Fire have gone unnoticed for so long(their last album came out in 2007, since then who could count how many one hit scenes there where in indie rock? ), and it appears that they won’t be getting much attention for some time, since the group doesn’t seem to want to active self-promote. Though it’s not a major problem, it’s something that does make one a bit sad, Nickelback getting it’s furious chart sales while Cats on Fire languish in the dark. But at least they’re languishing surrounded by great sounds.