Cats and Cats and Cats – Mother Whale

Much like label-mates Shield Your Eyes, there is an underlying core of almost classic songmanship to Cats and Cats and Cats, but it lies so deep beneath the surface that it can take some perseverance to break through. Still, once it’s tapped into it’s actually quite uplifting in a breezy, folk-but-not-quite kind of way and, if anything, the occasionally pained strings and tortured trumpets just add the polish to those little crystals of melody.

The one criticism that can be laid on Mother Whale is that it does frequently descend deep into the realm of, God help us, twee – but once again they are saved by a general disregard of convention, turning The Seaweed Brother’s male-female vocal volleys away from sickly sweet trappings with rollercoaster-esque dips and rises. Through this crippling of indie tropes with sheer bloody-mindedness, they’ve created an oddly infectious gem well-suited for summer listening, if only the sun would return from exile. [David Bowes]