Name: All Blackshirts to Me [Digipak]
Brand: Matin‚e
SKU: 23603166
Price: 179 HKD
Availability: InStock

All Blackshirts to Me [Digipak]

By Cats on Fire

Rating

Click to rate

Format

CD (1 Disc); Stereo

Release Date

31 December 2012

Album: All Blackshirts to Me [Digipak]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Our Old Centre Back
2)	My Sense of Pride
3)	Different Light, A
4)	There Goes the Alarm
5)	After the Fact
6)	Sea Within You, The
7)	1914 and Beyond
8)	Well Well What Do You Know
9)	Smash It to Pieces
10)	It's Clear Your Former Lover
11)	Few Empty Waves, A
12)	Finnish Lace

Our Price

HK$179

Ships from USA Estimated delivery date: 14th Apr - 22nd Apr from USA

Free Shipping Worldwide

Buy together with All Blackshirts to Me at a great price!

Buy Together

HK$361

Elsewhere Price

HK$533.96

You Save HK$172.96 (32%)

EAN

0884501690799

Writer

Cats on Fire

Country

(not USA)

Studio/Live

Studio

Label

Matin‚e

Performer Notes

Personnel: Mattias Bj”rkas (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards); Ville Hopponen (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, kalimba, percussion); Iiris Viljanen (keyboards, background vocals); Kenneth H”glund (bass guitar); Yrj” Ylijoki (drums).
Audio Mixers: Cats on Fire; Nick Triani.
Recording information: Bandhagen, Stockholm; Biskopsg†rden; Johanneberg; Kaisaniemi; Lauttasaari; Magnusborg, Porvoo; M”lndal; Port Arthur; Rill S Studios, Gamlestaden; Str”mmensberg; Studio Kekkonen, Vallila; Tambourine Studios, Malm”; V„h„-Heikkil„, Turku; V„stra Sorgenfri.
Arrangers: Mattias Bj”rkas; Ville Hopponen.
The long-running Scandinavian indie poppers Cats on Fire took their time developing their sound over the course of a handful of sporadically released singles and albums in their first decade of existence. All Blackshirts to Me is the band's third proper album, following a singles collection and 2009's Smiths-seeped Our Temperance Movement. The album's meticulous arrangements and sublime production speak to the band's fastidious attention to detail, and over the course of the 12 songs, Cats on Fire sculpt a crystal-clear, acoustic-leaning indie pop sound that borrows heavy from classic indie heroes but filters them through the band's collective personality. Singer and principal songwriter Mattias Bj”rkas' vocals take on the same removed affectation as those of Adam Olenius, lead singer for the band's Swedish contemporaries Shout Out Louds. Both singers' emulations of '80s indie goth icons like Morrissey and the Cure's Robert Smith aim for the essence of those influences, but their own unique perspectives and songwriting quirks factor in, making the end result something further removed than simple mimicry. A similar phenomena happens in a larger sense with Cats on Fire as a whole. They have always worn their influences pretty heavy on their sleeve, be it the dour college rock of the Smiths, Felt, and Orange Juice, the breezy wistfulness of the Go-Betweens, or even touches of Elvis Costello's acidic power pop. Tracks like "It's Clear Your Former Lover" and "A Few Empty Waves" brim with the same confessional feel of vintage Robyn Hitchcock or Verlaines tracks, but somewhere between Ville Hopponen's burning guitar tones and Bj”rkas' odd lyrics about travel, drinking, and smashing guitars, the songs take on a shape all their own. "After the Fact" is much the same, starting with a choppy pop beat but quickly adding delayed mandolin strums, floating vocals, and an oddly disjointed bridge, taking the song out of Smiths territory into uncharted waters. All Blackshirts to Me transcends its influences through interesting production and writing choices like these. In the end, the album feels like a very personal and slightly awkward diary entry set to music, mirroring some favorite bands but still focused on saying something new. ~ Fred Thomas