Listening to Barry Adamson’s Back to the Cat inevitably conjures up images of late-night, smokey bars and lounges that could be in Memphis, New York, or almost any other American city. Mr. Adamson, formerly of Magazine and Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, has made an album of dark and sultry, bluesy-jazz/rock–or is it jazzy-rock/blues?–whatever it is, its intoxicating. Its the horns that really define the record’s sound. They appear on nearly every song adding personality and atmosphere galore!
The first track, “The Beaten Side of Town”, captures the vibe of the record very well. In it, Adamson sings about an apocalyptic dream and the ragged, dilapidated areas found in some city that could be anywhere in the country. The song opens with a piano chord hanging in the air, the tapping of a cymbal, the rap of a snare drum, a smooth-talking bass line, and the snapping fingers of a lounge singer–then enters Adamson’s splendid crooning “I woke up this morning from a crazy dream…”
Considering the mood of these songs you might expect a gravelly growl in the vein of Tom Waits, but Adamson has a voice that is sharp, crisp, and smooth creating an interesting contrast to the down and dirty circumstances about which he sings. This makes it all the more intriguing because while the lyrics might fit in well on a Tom Waits record, there certainly isn’t any of the messy, junkyard blues of Waits’ recent years showing up on Back to the Cat. These songs, like Adamson’s voice, are slick and shiny–like a used car salesman on the beaten side of town. All of it really boils down to one word–seedy–but its wonderfully so.
Back to the Cat features two instrumental numbers, the chaotic “Shadow of Death Hotel” and the dark jazz-fusion-inspired “Flight”–as well as two surprisingly poppy songs, the organ-fueled “Straight ‘Til Sunrise” and the toe-tapper “Civilization.” Overall, it is a humid, sticky, seedy affair that is just too much fun to miss.
Its a frank album that will likely feel right at home in your CD player–for more on Back to the Cat, check out the review that turned me onto Barry Adamson over at The Hust Review.
Barry Adamson
Back to the Cat
Central Control, 2008
Rating: 4.0/5.0
