Cats In Paris - 'Courtcase 2000' (aA) Released 25/08/08

Like a spiked pint of cider at a Cornish music festival, Cats in Paris are the nightmare mix of accustomed folk rock with a grim realism twist of 21st century living.

There’s a general theme this 11 track head ****; an underlying direction of The Polyphonic Spree possessed by the forces of evil. Such a description though might be both too simplistic and too grandiose at the same time. There’s a myriad of avante-garde and traditional musical approaches on 'Courtcase 2000' and that often shift within the songs themselves. ‘lovelovlovelove’ flip flops from a dark pop verse to fully operatic chorus. And in similarly schizophrenic way, ‘Goojfc’ starts a beautiful misery of strings yet soon becomes a bopping electro parody of Super Mario while covered by vocals like a discordant mental illness.

Never knowing what you’ll be listening to next, the violent unpredictability of this album is a dividing force upon listeners. Yet the simplicity of Cats in Paris’ music however is only likely to impress. Making use of simple violin parts and lo-fi synth tones and drums it astonishes the moods that the group can create. From the upbeat and sugary ‘(How To) Harvest Yourself’ to a Nintendo lullaby partway through ‘Castle Walls’.

Like teen-pop discovering its favourite magic markers can also be used for solvent abuse, this noir take on a pop record is a tricky beast to tame. It’s ambivalent if the irregular jumps between musical order and chaos are the signs of great composition or the undecided and self-indulgent experiments of amateurs. Moments of brilliance, though frequent, often last little more than 20 seconds per track and at best only half a track on the 6 minute ‘Flamethrowers’. 
   
In the end the craving for more stability on 'Courtcase 2000' is too great to ignore, thus rendering it impossible to mark the whole on the merit of a few of its better parts. A truly brave endeavour but far too intense an approach to be made into 11 tracks.