Caught in the Carousel

The Cat Empire

So Many Nights
Velour Music Group

The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire returns from Australia with their third commercial release, So Many Nights. This, like their previous work, is like an international music festival. With its tight rhythm, horn, and string sections, the band plays with a mélange of styles and tropes from ska to salsa, trip-rock to Motown funk, swing to bossa nova, combining to create a seductive and sublime CD. So Many Nights is primarily laced with Latin/Afro-Cuban influences, but by bringing all these other musical styles into play, The Cat Empire creates something wholly different that plucks at instincts as familiar as a heartbeat. The melodies are puckish, driving even the stodgiest wallflower onto the dance floor, and the lyrics transform into magical little stories-myths and tales full of regret and joy that stick in your head like taffy.

It's a challenge to extract the best songs (or even to find the weakest) on this strong CD. Each track sounds like the best song of a slightly different band—getting back to that festival. "So Many Nights," "Fishies," "So Long," "Sunny Moon," and "Strong Coffee" are the most hip-shaking, but every song snaps. "No Longer There," the closest The Cat Empire comes to an 'issue' song, puts a lump in the throat with a plaintive trumpet and the piercing chorus, "What would you leave behind when all your fields are dead/ When your territories are dried out and your cities drawn and swept…" and "The Darkness" is mesmerizing, spinning like a Dervish, "Let the dead raise their heads/ And the dying leave their beds…" So Many Nights is catchy and sassy. Don't miss it.

-- Lyn Dunagan