[music] first prize exhibit and all down to good spirit

[bantha_fodder]

Catatonia is my favourite band in the world. I love them so, so much. Meyerlemon made a post about wanting some new music, and alryssa suggested Catatonia and I just. I felt compelled to make a whole post about how much I love them! I love them so much, I can't even tell you what my favourite song in the whole world is. How dumb is that? Because it's mine, and blogs are about sharing, but I can't share that with you. It's too much.

I AM SO DUMB.

Catatonia was formed in the early nineties, but they didn't really get a lot of airplay or become very well known until the late nineties, when they released 'Mulder and Scully', which was on their second album, International Velvet.

[An aside: It turns out that I have all of Catatonia's albums, including the best of, except I don't have my favourite album, International Velvet, which, incidentally, is an album that would make it onto my "You're stranded on an island. What five albums would you want with you?" list. Seriously.]

Lead singer Cerys has this amazing personality. She's Welsh (as is the whole band), and you know how often, singers will sing with an 'international' or null accent? She never did. There was never any doubt, when listening to her voice, of who she was and what she was singing and where she was from. And I always found that pretty amazing, too.

Cerys' voice aside, I love the tunes. All of them. They're never just riffs off the previous song - each one is so different, and so awesome. I guess you could sort of describe them as 'folk,' but I honestly believe it'd be doing them a bit of a disservice to catagorise them solely as such.

Catatonia split in 2001 and actually, that's okay. I love just about every song they released, and each song means so much to me, that I kind of don't mind that we'll never get anything new.

alryssa has made a similar post here (pee ess, she's wrong when she says those four are the four best from the album).
If you'd like to buy, this is the search for them on Amazon.



From International Velvet:
Mulder and Scully. OH COME ON. Things are getting strange / I'm starting to worry / This could be a case for Mulder and Scully. HOW CAN YOU RESIST THOSE LYRICS?
I am The Mob. This song makes Mob members sound really happy with their jobs.
My Selfish Gene (stolen from alryssa, as I appear to be missing a copy of International Velvet). This is a sad, terrible song, that happens to incidentally contain the word 'spleen.' You, me, and destiny / Guess that it was never meant to be.
International Velvet (the song, not the album). This song is in Welsh. And I have no idea what it's about, but it's track number seven on an English language album, and I've always thought that was kind of cool. I don't like listening to songs when I don't know what the words mean, so I usually don't listen to this song, but when I do it just sounds so enthusiastic and so proud, and that's awesome.


From Equally Cursed and Blessed:
Shoot the Messenger. This is a really bitter album. Many of the songs on this album sound awesome but are filled with such rage and bitterness, and then by a sort of, okay, I get that this is how it is now understanding, and it's just. Somebody told me you’d found new bonhomie / Going places you’d never go with me / I felt myself became a bitter old shrew / Oh I’d have bitten you in two if you would let me.
Nothing Hurts. This has a soft, lullaby sort of tune, and the words are lovely, but you just get the feeling it's all sarcasm.

From Paper Scissors Rock:
Godspeed. A song about the Internets.
What it Is. This is a song that's less cool for the lyrics and more awesome for the actual tune itself. It's just very quiet and filled with harmonies and awesome.

Comments

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

International Velvet sounds better in the Welsh before it's translated :P

Wake up sleepy Welsh, land of song.
Deep is the weakness,
Small is the flame,
The harvest is cruel, but the tune is beautious (sp?)
With the song of the lonely swan in my chest.

(this bit in English:)
Every day, when I wake up
I thank the Lord I'm welsh.

I discovered the true paradise of Rhyl
A feast of graves excited a shy Welsh woman


That's what I got, anyway. It's subject to translator interpretation and it's 5am!

[mandysbitch.livejournal.com]

You made me google the Tom Jones song - because I couldn't remember the band she sang that with ('Space' as it turns out...). I think she sang with Tom Jones too - on his covers album. Was it "Baby it's cold outside"..?

I recall the vid to 'Mulder and Scully' was cool - it had two people dressed to look very much like Mulder and Scully (you never see their faces) who eventually kiss at the end (in the crowd while the band is performing). At the time it was probalby the closest we got to an M/ S kiss. Catatonia were MSR shippers!

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Cerys sang on Tom Jones' covers album. And it was "Baby it's cold outside."

I don't remember any of their vids at all. But this vid sounds awesome! Because I suspect just about everyone was an MSR shipper at some point.

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

You realise that liking Catatonia means you've gone up another notch in my opinion of you? :) Bloody fantastic!! Catatonia are fantastic...
xx

[hercircumstance.livejournal.com]

*unexpected Sunday morning squeeing* A friend from Sweden sent me their first album in exchange for some X-Files on tape back in the late 90s and it was LOVE. Catatonia will be on my top five forever probably. Fantastic.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

You should definitely try to find all their other albums. Their music is SO AWESOME. And they get so much more awesome after the first album.

[hercircumstance.livejournal.com]

I have two of their CDs now and have all the rest of their songs since my sister went obsessed and tracked every CD down to the Japanese imports (which have some great numbers on them too). I went on an ebay spree during college and tried to snag as much as I could once I heard they had broken up. Managed to get my sister a tshirt, poster, and bio book and myself a poster and song book. Ebay is a bit dry on them right now, but from time to time some good stuff shows up.

I still have not properly processed the fact they broke up. Once a year I seem to "rediscover" them and have a marathon. And I really hope that there is a song out there that I've not heard yet. Sad otherwise.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Interesting group. Hadn't heard of them before. Cool.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh, these look fascinating. I must say, my musical horizons have been greatly expanded since You Send It and other services took off. I'm getting exposed to bands I'd never have even heard of, let alone considered buying their music.

[voleuse.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the music!

it's nice to get these little snippets of you

[crushw-eyeliner.livejournal.com]

I remember when Spin did this thing about how the Welsh were coming, after the post 90s britpop thing faded out and american music press were desperate to get hold of any trend, and they snatched onto Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and a bunch of other bands that I'm too lazy to go look at my cd collection to name check. Have you heard Cerys' solo stuff? It's more country western, softer, but still, god, that voice.

:D

Re: it's nice to get these little snippets of you

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't heard any of Cerys' solo stuff. That's always been the sort of thing that theoretically I'd love to hear, but in practise I've never had the chance. ALAS.

But Catatonia. !