The Cat Empire Album Review: Cinema (for The Music Network)

The Cat Empire’s first studio album since 2007, Cinema will be released in just a few hours (June 25^th). The Cat Empire will have jazz, ska and even rock fans dancing in hippie circles or at least dreaming about it.

The six-piece band have grown exponentially since Two Shoes filling this album with catchy new airs but still standing loyal to their Days Like These and Hello glory days.

Some tracks like the song Waiting have an element of Buena Vista Social Club, or at least a reaction to them. In tracks like Reasonably Fine and On My Way the keyboard replaces any guitar riffs the song may be wanting so from the very first track you forget they’re a six-piece band without a guitar.

Falling fills a musical hole in the Australian music charts of late; that subtle reggae instrumental is overlapped with vocalist Felix Riebl’s quiet chanting, this is a constant throughout Cinema.

The horns and trumpet make a much needed cameo on track All Hell which also features that 80’s synthetic keyboard sound you might remember from your old school days.

Jazz anthem The Heart Is A Cannibal is the standout track featuring trumpet player and vocalist Harry Angus. The track is one of the more catchy tunes as Angus sings of love and understanding.

This isn’t an album with a beginning, middle and end. Well obviously it begins, comes to the unavoidable middle and then it’s over but each song is an individual; an epic showcase of storytelling vocals and instrumentals that build up slowly then hit you like a blunt object on bone when they peak.