Wednesday 11 April 2012

Thoughts on: Tigercats - Isle Of Dogs

Genre: Indie Pop
Mood: Fun/Playful/Upbeat
Label: Acuarela
=====================

Tigercats are an East London Indie Pop band and this is their debut 'Isle Of Dogs', they've supported the likes of the Lovely Eggs, Wave Pictures and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and it plays exactly as you'd expect it to sound considering who they've supported with that of course being sugary upbeat indie rock. The first thing that came to mind when I listened to this CD in bold neon lit capital letters was Los Campesinos & I mean why not they do sound very similar. The album is a mass of major notes played in a very playful fashion with boy/girl call back vocals and is as a result Indie pop music that you can dance too, much like Los Campesinos did with their debut 'Hold On Now Youngster'
Not that any of this is to take away from this album which is great fun with an arsenal full of short & sweet pop songs. The first song that jumped out of me was 'Konny Huck' with it's really quite strange synth noise & jumping bass line it's just urges you to jump & shake along with a huge grin on your face. The next single 'Full Moon Reggae Party' unsurprisingly has a huge reggae influence on top of these very sweet duelling chorus vocals, again it seems to be written with the aim to make you dance.
The songs rarely stray away from this formula which does tend to show signs of straining towards the middle of the album where the songs simply aren't nearly as memorable or grabbing as the fantastic first 5 tracks, no this isn't to say they are bad, they are still good pop songs but seem to drop a lot of the momentum picked up at the start of the record. In fact I wouldn't say it's even the quality of the songs, on the own they stand up well, I just think the style started to wear a bit thin after a while & I was kind of hoping they'd show me something a bit different. Up until the fantastic 'Kim & Thurston', which is an incredibly sombre number named after the King & Queen of Indie Rock, it was all very much one paced. On the subject of 'King & Thurston' it is a truly pretty song with a very hypnotic and melodic bassline & sweetly sung vocals. The album ends very strongly as well,returning back to the pace found on the rest of the album, with 'East Island' and 'Banned From The Troxy' being 2 of the best songs on the whole record.

Overall I really enjoyed this album and it's energy & though it lost that little something for me towards the middle I still come out of this album with a huge smile on my face & that's what most albums from this genre fail to do these days as they often feel very insincere, where as this all seems completely honest and enthusiastic. Plays like a cross between Tokyo Police Club & Los Campesinos, but has reason to exist in it's own right, if you're looking for an album that's full of great catchy songs with a care free attitude then you can do a lot worse then 'Isle Of Dogs'



Listen On Spotify: Tigercats – Isle of Dogs
Stand out Songs: Konny Huck, Full Moon Reggae Party, Kim & Thurston, Easter Island & Banned From The Troxy
Upcoming UK Dates:
6th July [Indietracks Festival] 29th September [Nottingham Indie Pop All Dayer]


No comments:

Post a Comment