Dripping with noir and drenched in retro-cool aesthetics, this unusual collaboration works surprisingly well - and will have you coming back for more.
They say opposites attract, and with Cat’s Eyes the union is a fruitful one; between Canadian soprano Rachel Zeffira and The Horrors’ Faris Badwan.
On first glance a disposable, albeit cool, retro-styled collaboration full of classic Motown beats, backing singers and echo, Cat’s Eyes has a creepier side.
The self-titled opener matches the familiar fluff with Faris’ foreboding vocal, eliciting a nervy tension that descends towards abject despair on the dark, doom-laden psychedelia of Sooner Or Later.
But the dark side is outmanoeuvred by Zeffira’s dusky, filtered vocals and washes of instruments drenching the record in a romantically spectral atmosphere - save for the warming brass clarity of the aptly-named breather The Lull and the filmic, creepy cowboy vignette Bandit. A beautiful, goosebump-inducing journey.
4 stars
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