There are plenty of good rock bands out there, quite a few of whom deserve to be better known, but not too many are doing what Cats In Space are doing or, if they are, they’re probably not doing it as well.
Time Machine is the latest release from the Cats and the follow-up to 2022’s double album, Kickstart The Sun and is, in their words, a “Cinematic production bigger than anything we’ve ever done before.” If you don’t know Cats In Space, they’re unashamedly, unapologetically retro and proud of it. Their feet are solidly planted in the terra firma of the seventies, the days when bands who rocked but also with glorious harmonies, like Boston, Styx, Journey and Queen, were prominent on the airwaves. This is no surprise, given all members of this band have been around the block several times, playing in or behind acts such as Asia, Sweet, T’Pau, Robin Trower and Mike Oldfield, to name a few, and they offer up both nostalgia as well as a contemporary rock experience.
From the opening eponymous title track, a song about ‘living in the now,’ this album is rammed with razor-sharp harmonies, blistering guitar and vintage synth sounds, and they do not attempt to mask their influences. The overall vibe on the album is upbeat. Even on tearjerker ballads such as ‘My Father’s Eyes’, a song for anyone who’s lost their father, and ‘Crashing Down’, about the aftermath of a relationship break-up, the mood on both songs is uplifting rather than maudlin. ‘Ivory Anthem’ is quite a short, almost proggy, instrumental while ‘Forever And Ever’ is a slower number with synths right out of the Rick Wakeman playbook. But they let their rock juices flow on tracks like ‘Immortal’ and ‘Run For Your Life’, which sounds like a homage to Styx, whereas ‘Yesterday’s Sensation’ is the sound of 10CC playing alongside Supertramp if you can imagine such a thing.
The vinyl release ends with an epic, ‘When Love Collides,’ featuring some stunning vocals, but the CD contains three extra tracks, all covers. They attempt Tom Rush’s ‘No Regrets’, a song that doesn’t quite work for this reviewer. But on John Miles’ Music and Slade’s classic, ‘How Does It Feel’, they do a much better job, giving both a positive contemporary twist.
This is an album riven through with fine musicianship, and for anyone who likes bombastic, melodic seventies rock, played by guys who can rock and sing, this is an album you can easily get behind. The Cats have a genuine love and enthusiasm for their genre, coupled with a firm belief in what they do. And it shows.
Time Machine is out now!
