Cats on Fire doesn’t seem to know fair play. Here they are releasing a compilation full of early tracks, rarities & b-sides and still manages to come up with such a stunning collection that most indie pop bands would struggle to make a career spanning best of album that could reach the same level of excellence. It’s lovely to notice that songs like My Friend in a Comfortable Chair haven’t lost their charm during the years and still sound amazing today. Than there’s of course Higher Grounds and The Smell Of An Artist from The Seelonce Mayday demo. Real classics and should be among the first choices if someone starts compiling hall of fame for indie pop songs. Melodically superb and lyrically aware pop songs I wrote back in the day and I can still agree with my past self. A new treat on the album is a wonderful White Town cover Your Woman. I can admit that they weren’t making perfect pop music right from the beginning (by the time of the second single they probably were) and there are some only good songs here as well. Nevertheless, I think the biggest reason not to give this full amount of hearts is the fact that they’ve gotten even better during the years and are nowadays pretty much the best finnish band and (one of) the best indie pop band(s) in general. So if these were already worth five hearts, what are they doing right now. Something pretty spectacular I would say.
Listen to Your Woman:
[audio:http://www.onechord.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/cats_on_fire-your_woman.mp3]