Genre - Pop / Rock / Concept
Label - Art Head Records
Track listing:
01 - Hospital Scene (feat. Dr Bernard John Kane Jr)
02 - Hello
03 - Call Of Distress
04 - 8 Years Previously (feat. Dr Bernard John Kane Jr)
05 - Look at Me (feat. James Kennedy)
06 - Advertisement (feat. Dr Bernard John Kane Jr)
07 - One Day at a Time
08 - Scream My Thoughts
09 - Telephone Call (feat. Dr Bernard John Kane Jr)
10 - If I Tell You
11 - Angels (feat. Dr Bernard John Kane Jr)
12 - Cruel to Be Kind (feat. James Kennedy)
13 - Me and You
14 - Go to War
15 - Creation of Man (feat. James Kennedy)
16 - Superheroes (feat. James Kennedy)
Cat Southall has most recently come to my attention through her involvement with Ginger Wildhearts Hey! Hello! project, with in which she has put in some rather stellar live performances and contributed some of the strongest lead vocals on the Hey! Hello! Too! album. Cat Southall's professional vocal career has spanned several decades, working in all genres of Music. Cat spent 12 years fronting popular rock band Sal, gigging and touring nationally and internationally sharing stages with Saxon, Dodgy, Ocean Colour Scene. Cat has also worked as a session artist backing name bands such as 'Gun', 'John Cale', 'Catatonia' and the legendary 'Tom Jones', she joined forces with local legends The Manic Street Preachers, arranging and performing gospel vocals on their hit album 'Postcards from a Young Man', which also led to Cat performing with the band on the legendary 'Later With Jools Holland' show and Strictly Come Dancing where she worked with Dave Arch and the Strictly Come Dancing band.
Cat wrote and recorded this solo concept album, working with Sal band mate Noog and Kyshera front man James Kennedy,
'Call Of Distress' is an album of soaringly anthemic theatrical pop/rock, complete with superheroes, evil villains, comic style artwork, spoken narrative & sound FX. She fuses influences from David Bowie to Queen; Kate Bush to The Beatles. Through her music you’ll find beautiful melodies, dramatic rock, huge choruses and lyrics, sincere and affecting. Building on the vocal and performance dynamics learned through operatic training, a love of musical theatre and rock music, Cat’s performance is as affecting, fun and memorable as her songs.
As mentioned above, 'Call Of Distress' is a concept album, where after waking up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there, Cat, Having suffered massive head trauma starts experiencing unexplainable powers which can only be described as Super-human. The more she believes, the more she begins to express her latent super-abilities. To keep her secret, Cat creates an alter ego known as Nancy Neuron and uses her powers to save humanity from the evil Dr Lukas Vent and his Army of Robots.
Now releasing a concept album in today's world of the ever decreasing attention span is rather a brave decision to make, but one that Cat and crew pull off really well. The albums sixteen tracks clock in at around the forty five minute mark, and trust me that time just flies by. Cat's vocals are awesome, as she sings her way through the characters adventure, journeying through various musical genres and landscapes along the way, from the gentle and subtle piano led tracks suck as 'Hello' and 'Scream My Thoughts' to the rocking 'Look At Me' and ' Me To You'. In places 'Call Of Distress' brings to mind some of Meatloafs better moments, but always maintains its own distinct identity.
This is a really enjoyable album and one that I really do recommend that you check out. Plkus Cat has an awesome set of pipes on her too!
Rating: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment