Review: The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire - "Two Shoes"
(Velour Recordings, 2007)

It might seem pretentious for a band to record its second album in Cuba, at the home of the Buena Vista Social Club, complete with full salsa horn-band accompaniment. But not every band has the chops of Melbourne, Australia's Cat Empire, a band that defies genre conventions by blending jazz, funk, salsa, reggae and ska into one indelible sound no other band is capable of aping. In those capable hands, recording in Cuba merely allowed the band to focus its efforts for their sophomore album, and now that Two Shoes is finally getting an American release, the rest of us get a chance to discover what the world down under has known for years. The Cat Empire rocks, and they rock with a vengeance.

The opening track, "Sly," introduces the fun-loving band with an upbeat jazz-infused piece capable of earning radio airplay in many formats. However as the album progresses through the heavily reggae-influenced "In My Pocket," one starts to appreciate the band’s stylistic depth and the lengths to which they'll go to hook listeners. "Lullabye" opens slowly then molds into an upbeat funky number blending hip hop scratching with jazz piano, horns and stutter-step rapping worthy of the best in the business. Try and listen to this without your hips grooving, your feet tapping, your tongue trying to wrap itself around lead-vocalist Harry James Angus's Aussie-tinged vocals. "It’s never too late for the love of my sexy baby," he sings, and it's immediately clear that it's never too late to get hooked on what Cat Empire has to offer, even if as Americans we had to wait two years longer than the rest of the world to get it.

Other standout tracks include "The Car Song," an amusing tale of a young man who blows his life thinking he'll always have a chance to do something "someday," when really his life's just passing him by, and "Two Shoes," a funky-smooth tribute to Bob Marley which blends jazz with reggae, creating an astoundingly addictive chorus. Then there's "Sol y Sombra," the album's one truly latin-flavored track, complete with lyrics in Spanish and a full backing-band, a fusion which works to full effect. Who'd have thought a bunch of crazed Australians could create latin music with the best musicians the scene has to offer?

The Cat Empire is a difficult band to pigeonhole. For those of you who need modern comparisons, imagine if Cake, Beck, Sublime and Soul Coughing all combined to form an uber-potent supergroup, and you might come close to what this band has to offer. Two Shoes is an amazing album which deserves to be overplayed immediately by every radio station getting FCC clearance. Every time we put this one through our headphones we can imagine we're in an alternate universe where good music gets its just rewards and bands like The Cat Empire are respected beyond the underground.

Hey, it could happen!