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When these four Finns decided to come together to make music, they had a bold inclination towards English eighties bands like the Smiths or McCarthy, with a particular nod to the sixties. They had to wait until 2007 to release their first album: "The Province Complains".
But now it's 2009, and our Cats On Fire have landed their second album: the same style as the first (perhaps too much so), subtly ironic, immediate. The band led by Mattias Bjorkas confirms the good premonitions we had, now turned into solid certainties. With "Our Temperance Movement", they deal with pop, in the most effective sense of the word, but also in the most joyful and radiant sense, retaining that pronounced ardor for melancholy.
Their songs take shape this way, songs that speak of disappointments, of youthful love torments; but they never veer into a more shadowy, more opaque musical spirit; they always remain within the proud reins of pop, sounding playful and brisk. The only more reflective hints are found in "Never Sell The House" and "Our Days In The Sun". For the rest, the album is a succession of tracks with a sweet and light taste but with a desolate and aching background.
But speaking of music as such, Cats On Fire reach great peaks with which the listener can adore the album, moments present in the initial folk-like "Horoscope", or in infectious tracks that almost make us get up and dance like "Tears In Your Cup", or even "The Steady Peace" where the connection to Morrissey is immediately evident.
"Our Temperance Movement" is a simple album essentially, both in sounds and themes, spontaneous, without great pretensions, but one that becomes lovable after a couple of listens, just as only pop can do.
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