Back to 'Cities'/'Two Shoes'-era wonderfunk for 'the Aussie Beatles'.
I saw The Cat Empire last October at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London. They were wonderful, as ever, and debuted several of these new songs from 'Steal The Light', and I noted at the time that they sounded like something a bit special. I remember 'Brighter Than Gold' and 'Still Young', that they sounded great.
7 months later, and the new CD has winged its way over from Melbourne, Australia, together with the Special Edition giant-sized poster of the wonderful Graeme Base album art, with the names of everyone who has ever signed up to their mailing list printed on it over both sides (including my wife's and mine!), and a lovely note from the band thanking me, and a cute little Microsoft Outlook email to the authorities, confirming all taxes had been paid up in full Mr Chancellor. I was excited.
As with 'Cinema', the album arrived the morning after I finished a night shift, and my wife only got me downstairs at all that day by threatening to put it on without me. I thought, "I'm not having that again", and set the CD spinning as I made my afternoon's breakfast, and did the dishwasher.
'Brighter Than Gold' I had heard before of course, not only live, but also accompanying the brilliant video on YouTube, but it was great to hear it thumping out of my stereo for the first time. Having heard it driving home late last night, for the first time after dark, I've come to realise it's definitely a night time, after hours kind of song, best appreciated long after the sun's gone down. Some songs just are, you know?
Sometimes I think of TCE as being like Rage Against The Machine on 'Evil Empire', desperately finding new ways of getting killer riffs out of the blues scale, and 'Brighter Than Gold' finds another killer trumpet hook in the breakdown that signals a real return to form for the band. They just feel like they like each other again.
'Prophets In The Sky' is a Harry-sung number, credited to all of the band (and it's interesting to see the credits for each song; lots of different inter-band collaborations, and different band members getting credited in different orders, McCartney/Lennon-style). 'Prophets...' is where the album starts to feel very nicely South American, and 'Two Shoes' reminiscent, with the slightly behind-the-beat shuffle, and the slipping into Spanish, with mentions of 'coraźon' (Spanish for 'heart'). Their South American fans are some of their most ardent and passionate followers, as seen by the numerous Facebook and Twitter comments begging the band to return to S.A., and the band seemed to have embraced the love once again, even filming a video down there, I believe.
I was initially a bit put out by Harry's use of the word 'hipsters' for some reason, I really don't like the term, or the people it refers to, in England anyway, and see it as a bit of a fad-ish word (it's rad, but is it a bit rad-dy?) that might date in a few years, but after a few days' heavy rotation it's safe to say I was wrong, and this album's faultless, and even the songs I thought I was going to struggle with listening to regularly have become stuck in my head, so what do I know, and I love finding albums that can do that, so all power to The Empire Ship!
'Steal The Light' comes next, and at this point, almost arbitrarily because it's so good throughout the album, I must mention Ryan Monro's bass playing here. Always a bit of an unsung hero, the man is rock steady and funky as, all the way through this, and the rapport between his bass and the mighty sound of Will Hull-Brown's drums has evolved into a thing of pure wonder and joy. It's the simple things he gets right, so right, and I could just listen to this track as an instrumental and it would be glorious. As the chorus is about to come in, The Empire Horns erupt in a waterfall cascade of rushes to the head, just one of many moments on the album of hornish delight.
DJ Jumps gets a rare songwriting credit on the next tune, 'Am I Wrong', together with Harry and Felix, with its standout staccato drum part, as the two singers share vocal duties, with a verse/chorus split. Harry sings, "Am I wrong, Mother Theresa?" in the chorus, not his only spiritual moment on the album.
He takes centre stage again on 'Wild Animals' up next, which was a standout lyrical moment for me on first listen, and is a further continuation of his wonderful personal songwriting style that has evolved since his first solo album was released, 'Little Stories'. He sings that Man (or Woman) wasn't born to be sat down behind desks all day, staring at screens or their phones, and not to forget that we are actually wild animals, as wild and free as any other, or else we should be. "Don't let them kill the wild animals inside of you". The music features great work from Jumps, and gives a kind of Jungle Book/Dr Doolittle semi-comedic vibe somehow, and I also get a feel of Weather Report style fusion type stuff, which comes back again later on in the album.
So far, so amazing, and such a diverse mix of all the styles that make the band what they are, seemingly at the height of their powers, and not taking themselves too seriously again. It's worth pointing out that this is the first album the band have released on their own, presumably having fulfilled their contract with Virgin Records, which served them well for sure, especially in the early days, but now the music biz has changed, and I gather it's much more desirable in all ways for bands to release things by themselves these days, and the whole album has a lightness of touch, and a feeling of being at ease with itself that may have come from being freed of whatever shackles they may have been tied to in the past. Who knows, I'm just speculating. Literally making this stuff up.
Back to the music, dude. 'Still Young' comes in at a relentless pace, lapses into dub in the middle, then throws in a little Spanish, and we could be back on 'Cities', the lesser-known album in between their debut and 'Two Shoes', of songs written for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne way back when, I believe. The band seem to just be enjoying jamming together again, and some of the best moments on the album are just extended instrumental bits that seem to have been written from jams, rather than worrying too much about song structure, which is what made TCE so special in the first place. You don't play over a thousand shows without becoming expert musical genii, you know. Just ask those four lads from Liverpool.
'Like A Drum' is another Jumps collaboration, with Felix and Ryan this time, and features lyrics sung almost entirely in Spanish. This was another song I thought I wasn't going to like long-term on first listen (so much for first listens), but it's been stuck in my head all day, and the clever linking of lyrics and drum beat and Ollie McGill's delicious 'piano montuno' deliver a fantastic, authentic South American vibe, with some nice minor key resolving too.
'Open Up Your Face' is perhaps the strangest song on the album, credited just to Harry. It sidles up to you and grooves like a sunset wave on St Kilda beach. Seriously, that just came to me, but it's true. Further evidence of an increasingly spiritual Harry, God knows what it's about, but then I think maybe I do...maybe I do.
Next up, 'Go', a straight-up Harry and Jan Skubiszewski collaboration (the guy who is the other of half of (one of) Harry's side projects, Jackson Jackson (presumably, he's Jackson)), and who produced the whole of this album. Hard to see too many similarities between this and Jackson Jackson stuff, the first album of which I own, and is amazing, although thinking about it now, there is a similar sort of 'Ring Of Fire'-style Mariachi type trumpet thing going on here that reminds me of the excellent 'Flicker and the Spark' from that album. The band is cooking again, and Harry really gets into the vocals, again decrying modern technology, a theme he's touched on before, and a pretty damn relevant one I'd say, as I sit and type this on my ipad, having not spoken to any living human about this album I love at all and am instead choosing to post my thoughts up on the Internet for the pleasure of strangers I will never meet.
"...every now and then someone starts to sing...but you're just standing there and staring at your omnipresent phone, you're so goddamn materialistic, man you've got to let it GO!"
Quite.
'Sleep Won't Sleep' comes in next, and took me by surprise after a few listens; was this some kind of 'Two Shoes' type sunshine and cocktails, glorious, for large parts instrumental, song of old I was hearing before my very ears? Yes it was, and definite evidence of what had been promised by the band in interviews before 'Steal The Light' was released, a return to that laid-back, easy vibe that made us all fall in love with them in the first place. Oh the horns! Oh the piano! Oh the bass! Oh the percussion! Oh the scratching! Oh the drums! Oh the smile in Felix's voice!
'Don't Throw Your Hands Up' continues in this happy place, with another beautiful Monro bassline, and some African type feel, again reminiscent of 'Black Market'-era Weather Report for me (to be fair, that's the only Weather Report album I've got), and there even seems to be a little subtle echo of one of the melodies from, I think, the title track of that album, but don't quote me on that, as I don't have it to hand and can't be bothered to look it up on YouTube. It seems to be a song of positivity from Mr Angus, to not focus on the negative side of life and instead look to the future as a bright place of possibilities. As it jolly well is.
The album ends with 'All Night Loud', credited just to Felix, and recalling his lovely solo album, 'Into The Rain'. It's a beautiful unassuming, quiet number, and a grower, and it feels good that the band now seem to be acknowledging that it's OK that they've gone off and done separate things, but actually they can bring those things together under one TCE album, and it's great, and it can still be greater than the sum of their funky parts.
If I was a professional writer, I'd now link this ending to something I said in the opening paragraph, but I'm so tired of reading every article and review written in that way that I'm just not gonna do it. Besides, I can't remember how I started, and I'm tired now. It's nearly 1 a.m. and I have to be up for work soon enough. Suffice it to say the album's great. If you were thinking about whether to buy it, you should I'd say. And to the band, I'm much obliged. I'm much obliged. I think I paid you about £20 to have the Special Edition shipped over from Melbourne to England, and to have the music transported from your fingers and hearts and souls and into mine. I think I still owe you all a beer at least.
Adios, funkmeisters. Until next time.
