Cats in Space
Too Many Gods

This is an album that will definitely end up in my collection, on a nice vinyl disk or something like that – this because the artwork might be the best I have seen, at least in a long while.  These cats jamming space, sleeping and looking for new world to strip bare in their everlasting search for pleasure and food, think that there are too many gods out there – I am inclined to agree. The band behind the name is British and consists of musicians that have been in the industry for more than 30 years, very experienced guys that has worked with some great names. Great names are also mentioned  in comparison with these guys, but if you want to earn high ratings at Hallowed you cannot come dragging your CV as we don’t care for that, the only thing that matters is the present and the album I have at the table right now. But if the cover were the only criteria I would award this band seven points in a heartbeat. So how about what it inside that cover?

Melodic pop-rock that is how we most easily can describe this band in terms of musical direction, with catchy choruses, very melodic soundscapes, classic rock vocalist, excellent production they will probably cater to a very large group of rock fans. I think that you could name drop many bands if you want such references, 10cc, ELO, New England, Cheap Trick and Queen are some that are very often mentioned in the press mails about this album. The melodies are excellent, there are good use of keyboards, some flutes and saxophone and the likes, the music are quite varied over an album that feels just about right in terms of playing time. The music is quite familiar, yet they have a fresh spin on it so they feel both fresh and familiar. I think that this can certainly be described as a quality production.

And it is not only there they feel solid and high quality, the song writing is excellent as well considering that each and every track on this album can be described as brilliant. I would say that this is definitely one of the best albums of the year so far and one of few that has received such high rating from me. In fact I think it is very difficult to find anything negative to say about this album, maybe one thing can be that it is not enough purring, it is not enough connection back to the band name but that can be said about almost any band in this genre – the album is brilliant even though the cats are only really present on the cover, the name and possibly the intro. I can report that even Pepper thinks this is purr-worthy music and he is quite picky with what he listens to, and eats. And even if this were a dreadful thing it wouldn’t really bother these guys as they always land on their feel anyway, especially if offered a high enough fall.

So, I can’t really do anything but conclude that it isn’t often I find something on par or better than this album when I look through the different mailboxes that contain stuff for this webzine. And it is an album that makes this sifting through the piles of mediocrity worth it; it is an album I can spend the entire day listening through over and over again. And it is one where eleven excellent songs makes it impossible to select a favourite songs, they are all favourites but it is possible that the title track along with Unfinished Symphony and nine other songs are exceptionally noteworthy. These cats certainly deliver and I don’t mean vomit, hairballs and filled up litterboxes. They are cats with serious bite, you don’t really want to miss this album.

HHHHHHH