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Catatonia release their third album, Equally Cursed And Blessed, on Blanco Y Negro in the UK.Full article:
In a month of almost uniform dross, this is a blessed relief. Catatonia started out with a couple of killer singles and have just got better. Cerys Mathews is a front woman with genuine personality and her songs have a lot to say. In a chart full of chirpy teen-pop cherubs, Dead From The Waist Down stood out as something you could get your teeth into and engage your brain with.
Anyone in the music business with the nerve to write songs like Londinium, savaging the phoniness of the industry, or like Storm The Palace, advocating the abolition of the monarchy ('Turn it into a bar, Let them work in Spar'), certainly gets my vote. The band is unflashy, bent on enhancing the songs with subtlety and imagination rather than ego-tripping for the hell of it. The core of Catatonia's appeal, though, is strong melodies, beautifully arranged and sung in Mathew's scary four-year-old kiddie voice, like Shirley Temple flourishing a bloody axe.
Johnny Black review in HiFi News, July 1999
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Anyone in the music business with the nerve to write songs like Londinium, savaging the phoniness of the industry, or like Storm The Palace, advocating the abolition of the monarchy ('Turn it into a bar, Let them work in Spar'), certainly gets my vote. The band is unflashy, bent on enhancing the songs with subtlety and imagination rather than ego-tripping for the hell of it. The core of Catatonia's appeal, though, is strong melodies, beautifully arranged and sung in Mathew's scary four-year-old kiddie voice, like Shirley Temple flourishing a bloody axe.
Johnny Black review in HiFi News, July 1999