Cat's Eyes- S/T (2011) Rough Trade Limited Edition (Bonus Disc) MP3 & FLAC

"Don't go looking where you shouldn't look, 'cause you won't like what you find."

Who could have predicted that the all-too-brief late-sixties pairing of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood would continue, more than 40 years later, to exert the influence that it does?  Essentially, it's a simple aesthetic built around a contrast of sexual opposites: a world-weary and/or wrecked male vocal married to a coy, girlish, Lolita-esque female vocal, which is more or less a variation on the old "beauty and the beast" theme. The best of the various contemporary (re)incarnations of this sound is the ongoing collaboration between Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell. However, while Lanegan and Campbell play this sound pretty much straight up, Cat's Eyes, a collaboration between Faris Badwan of The Horrors and Canadian opera soprano Rachel Zeffira, use it as a point of departure, crafting a sound that is both convincingly retro but absolutely contemporary in its manipulations of texture and space. What is most striking about Cat's Eyes' eponymous debut is its ability to import sixties-era Motown and mainstream pop influences into a darker, gauzy, Goth-tinged context. For example, the opening title track fades in with a thin claustrophobic electronic-based drone before erupting into what sounds like The Birthday Party doing a mid-sixties Nuggets revival, but what really elevates things are Zeffira's vocal contributions, which lend the song some eye-winking humor while remaining creepily distant. "Not a Friend," possibly the album's best track, is a gorgeous fifties pop knockoff that features Zeffira taking the role of chanteuse but the lyrics render the sugar-coated setting both ironic and paranoiac. While not the first indie artists of late to mine these influences, Cat's Eyes manage to recontextualize and occasionally transform their Nancy & Lee fetish, and in the process make it all sound exceedingly dark and new.

Cat's Eyes (Rough Trade Limited Bonus Disc Edition)

 1. Cat's Eyes  (2:38)
 2. The Best Person I Know  (3:10)
 3. I'm Not Stupid  (2:37)
 4. Face in the Crowd  (2:49)
 5. Not a Friend  (2:10)
 6. Bandit  (3:03)
 7. Sooner or Later  (3:59)
 8. The Lull  (2:39)
 9. Over You  (2:31)
10. I Knew It Was Over  (2:14)

 Reposted on Plastic Palace People

Bonus Disc: Demos

1. The Best Person I Know  (1:50)

2. FY  (2:06)

3. Snow Drift  (4:02)

4. In Ecstasy  (3:50)

5. Not a Friend Lifespan  (2:40)

 Reposted on Plastic Palace People