Labels: Damaged Goods
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Aha, it’s Lance and co – J Church coming at ya with their 9th album. This year. Ha ha! I bet that joke has been made a thousand times before, but never by me, so let me off, eh?
Actually, this is only the second album by the J that I have, the other being Quetzalcoatl (which I found out was an actual Aztec god just the other day), and I have that because I stumbled across it for a measly fiver on vinyl. Cat Food is better than Quetzalcoatl, probably because the J have released more records since then than most major record companies, and hence have had a lot of time to practice and get good.
Equally adept at doing punk, rock and indie, just so long as they get to put their own brand of pop into it, there are 12 neat little songs spliced into 27 minutes on this CD. Opening up with one of the best songs on the album, the quickfire “the Heroic Trio” is all about simple and catchy punk, with silly shouty school girl backing vocals that are really endearing. These crop up on a couple of other songs on here, including the “Turn To Stone” single, which featured Manda Rin of the ear-achingly sucky Bis. Maybe she is responsible for all of the ones on Cat Food. Whatever, it’s a groovy little feature that definitely adds to some of these songs.
Other coolio tracks include “My Favorite Place” which starts off in an indie rock mode, before crashing into a catchy rocking chorus. Quality. You’ll be walking around singing “One Plus One! Two Plus Two! Three Plus Three! Four Plus Four!” like some Sesame Street reject within days. “All Girl Band” is a slow indie rocker with some meaty guitar, and “Versace Killer” is possibly the best track – a slice of belting poppy punk rock with more of those cool shouty girlie backing vokes. “City By The Bay” continues the catchy theme with it’s upbeat sounding rock, and has a particularly cool lyric in “Everyones running away, to the city by the bay / If you can’t make it hear, you might as well jump off the Golden Gate”.
Look, it’s on an English record label too (Damaged Goods). If you’re still uninitiated, you no longer have an excuse to not check J Church out. Get to it.