Animals. Cat Dowling

Two Dublin singers feature on this blog in just a few days and both have released incredibly rich records. Jane Willow debuted with her first full length album. Cat Dowling has been around for quite some years, as singer of bands like Babelfish and Alphastates and as a solo artist. For me the singles coming from Animals were my introduction to her though. And all three singles impressed. They put the expectations for the album quite high, actually.

The question following a comment like this, invariably is: Does Animals deliver? The first hint is given away by the fact that you are reading this little contribution to the promotion of Animals.

On Animals Cat Dowling presents herself in broad, diverse ways. Nowhere there's a hint that the music to album was written in stolen moments, in a time she was extremely busy. A time where doing one thing was leaving another. To turn this observation around, it may well be that she was able to work with optimal focus as there was not that much time available. If so, Animals attests to it. The album is filled with eleven beautiful songs, in a few genres of music at that.

The album opens with the title song and single 'Animals'. It starts as a fast folk song. An acoustic guitar with a driving rhythm. Drums play isolated accents. Strings come in, some background vocals. As I wrote before, nothing suggests the U2 storm that is cooked up and released. 'Animals' is such a fantastic surprise. The kind of song the whole world ought to get to know.

That Animals means business, is shown by 'All That I Can Do'. A soft kind of rock song, sung with a seductive voice. Singing close to a whisper. The arrangement of the song is rich. There's no other word for it. There's a lot going on and obviously a lot of preparation has gone into it. You will hear many details and extra additions to the whole, making the song busy in nature, without losing focus.

In 'Trouble' Cat Dowling shows herself from a more rocking side. The electric guitar is allowed to play a main role, being propelled by a tight drums and elementary bass guitar. Dowling shows herself to sing in the league of a Reb Fountain and Lana del Ray, musically though there's no comparison. She rocks out when she wants to and certainly is not bothered by music from the time of her grandparents. Her voice does hold something mysterious to it, while also promising intimacy. On this record it is just her and you, as listener, no one else. A promise she delivers upon as some of the songs become softer, more delicate and intimate later on.

Folk is never far away on Animals. The intro of 'Bullets' certainly is folky. When the band joins in. the folk guitar is joined by a rocking band, with hints at jazzrock. This is a far from usual folk song. It spells adventure of the musical kind. Where 'I Wanna Dance' is a ballad, one that could have been found on Reb Fountain's last record 'Iris'. Singing and music have a mysterious element that keep me listening over and over, trying to determine what the song is keeping from me.

The second half of Animals is different from the first. Almost a classic a and b side division. The songs are softer, not so much acoustic, as the electric guitar is there. The album offers a more intimate atmosphere, it opens itself up, as there's no hiding behind a rock guitar and loud drums anymore, let alone a musical tempest as in the opening song. A piano is heard more often as well. 'I Never Knew' is all piano and is closer to a Billy Joel song than anything else. Had not some more traditional instruments entered the song later on that is.

'In The Dark' starts as an average song. The change it makes is superb. The song is given this dreamy element that makes it seem to float away. There's obviously a 60s element woven into the song, let's call it Nancy Sinatra assisted by Lee Hazelwood. It makes Animals take another turn once again. With 'Is This Love' my Reb Fountain association returns once again. When a song is this good, I do not care. Now I have 'Iris' and 'Animals'.

The album ends with rain and wind and a kind of lullaby, where music from my parents' favoured music do come by. Although the guitar is played a little differently, I can imagine Doris Day singing 'Let Love Be'. A befitting song to close off an album.

Overhearing it all, I could comment that the three singles I had heard before this release, are not fully representative for the music on Animals. The album would have profited from another louder song on the B side. It would have made the balance just a little better. That said, there's so much beauty to be found here, so who am I to complain?

Wout de Natris