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Rating: Grasp all, lose all, or so it has always been said. But established as it may be, one must wonder what one can grasp who, on the contrary, does not know at all what they desire... And what does one who does not know what they want but believes they do, achieve according to the proverbs? Anyone familiar with the Catherine Wheel, after listening to "Wishville," would not be able to grasp the intentions of Dickinson and company. I shall try, and venture: on one hand to reconcile with their past and on the other to push even further into the depths of the pop song...
The fact remains that when these former shoegazers "reached" grunge, grunge was at its swan song; after transforming into an indie band, the national "giants" of Britpop were either dissolving or more commonly becoming monuments (i.e., caricatures) of themselves. What benchmark, then, was left available for a band that had long left behind its brilliant past of "Ferment" and "Chrome"? Perhaps the British pop song of the good old days, or at least so it would seem from the low-key ballad "My Dog," the Ziggy Stardust-like sounds of "Idle Life," or yet again the psychedelia of the closing "Creme Caramel," evocative yet predictable.
And it cannot be explained otherwise the fact that in "Wishville" a rock track is missing, a piece to chart is missing, an easy indie-rock to make teenagers jump is missing. At the height of generosity, Catherine Wheel places a shoegaze-blues in the opening "Sparks Are Gonna Fly" and reclaims the remnants of their youth by performing "Lifeline" and "Ballad Of A Running Man," tracks "from another time" (that of their debut), but performed with arrangements and tastes of any pop band.
An album that marks the end of a band in the simplest and most perfect way: a natural death, a "physical" ending that coincides precisely with the inspiration's end. A parabola that eventually reaches zero.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Gasoline (04:22)
Fuel of fathers' sweat
Sweet like baby's breath
Strong like superman
Stinking up the streets I am
The feeling does me in
But here I go again
I love gasoline
I love gasoline
Smooth like summer silk
Sweet like mother's milk
Warm like tenderness
Perfume sprayed around my neck
I know it makes no sense
But here I go again
I love gasoline
I love gasoline
Here comes the rush again
Let me down easy
Warm like summer breeze
Flowing round your city
Come on down with me
I love gasoline
I love gasoline
03 Lifeline (04:29)
Follow the lifeline I labelled so neat
Through every lifetime from scars that run deep
Follow the love tracks unrivalled unmatched
Book me the right train I'd love to nip back
Set up high above the Pyrenees
Set up high on the road of release
My brain, my arms, my chain, my charms
My aims, my itch, my foes, I've licked
My bed of flame my name
Spread myself round again
Spilled out my guts again
Think I might lay down again
Stitch me up I'm torn again
Follow the pipeline I laid it so deep
It flows out my window it flows out to sea
It curls round the mountain it takes up the slack
Book me the right plane I long to nip back
Set up high above the Pyrenees
Set up high on the road of relief
My lies, my lust, my truth, my trust
My league, my school, my game, my rules
My bed I've made, my grave
Spread myself round again
Spilled out my guts again
Think I might lay down again
Stitch me up I'm torn again
My eyes, my hips, my face, my lips
Are failing me
Combined with mixed up living
My victory is escaping me
La La La
The lifeline slips away
07 Mad Dog (04:04)
Keep it sweet
Florist of dreams
A tangerine
You're burning up
The forest of love
You're tangled up
You're a weird child
Like your dad was
You're a bee sting
You're a mad dog
You're a fierce soul
In your bad clothes
Need some good luck
In your mad love
Keep it cheap
The promise of peaks
You've never seen
You turned around
Fountains of change
You made your name
What a name
You're a weird child
Like your dad was
Can you be still
You're a mad dog
You're a fierce soul
In your bad clothes
Need some good luck
In your mad love
It's just your magic is more than electric
It spins inside
Take me home
I'm staying up the road
I'll let you know
It isn't you
I need a clear space
To think it through
I'm a weird child
Like your dad was
I'm a bad star
You're a mad dog
You're a queen Jane
It's a hard slog
I'm a pale saint
In your mad love
You're the May Queen
I'm the magpie
We're the twin sisters
We're the real dreamers
08 Ballad of a Running Man (04:50)
For years I avoided caffeine
For years I was clean
I was calm and complete
Then the world fell down round my ears
Had a change in my state
Bug eyed and awake
I was grinding my teeth in my habitat
I couldn't stand still I was running back
But it was gone
Smack smack smacking my hands
Flap flapping my hands
Lick licking my wounds
Will it help me
Rip rip ripping my skin
Clip clipping my wings
Pick picking my bones
Will it help me
Hip hip hip to the beat
I can't find my own feet
Can't see where I stand
Ballad of a running man
Jam Jam marathon man
For years I was wrapped up in blue
On sunny afternoons
Sunbathed but unmoved
On the ground I found me a stooge
He was clear out of school
With a theory to prove
He said he understood so I told him
It was just like I'd read in a magazine
Said I thought it was weird to be
stumbling
And that it felt like a race
I was running in
That's already run
Smack smack smacking my hands
Flap flapping my hands
Lick licking my wounds
Will it help me
Rip rip ripping my skin
Clip clipping my wings
Pick picking my bones
Will it help me
Hip hip hip to the beat
I can't find my own feet
Can't see where I stand
Ballad of a running man
Jam Jam marathon man
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