The Daily Spin, February 17
Catfish and the Bottlemen | The Balcony
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: The Balcony (2014)
Artist: Catfish and the Bottlemen
Link:
Catfish and the Bottlemen’s debut, 2014’s The Balcony, is FIFA music to its core.
Good thing I love FIFA music.
Seriously, I adore this album. Beyond the musicality, which I think is super strong, despite not being terribly inventive, the album has a certain homemade feel to it, through the quips and the slightly rough vocals that just hits at my core. The album loses a few percentage points because it doesn’t ever feel particularly original - and while there’s nothing wrong with sticking to what you can do well even if that road’s been paved before, the songs, especially in the middle-back of the album, feel a little tired at times.
The opener and closer, though, are two of my favorite songs ever recorded.
Homesick, the opener, is the quietest song on the album and maybe of their entire catalogue, checking in just under two and a half minutes long. It’s a simple guitar under a hazily sung verse, one that emphasizes every click of the “k” in “drunk” and every squeak of the guitar, before a raging chorus that fades all too quickly back into verse. Gorgeously written, and truly a song I could listen to forever.
Tyrants, the album’s finisher, is a slow burn, taking the standard format of the Welsh group’s songs, but with a bit more of an angry edge. After a wailing solo roughly 2:15 in, the song switches things up, though, and it shines. A plucky guitar is soon joined by lead man Van McCall, until both are screaming into the mike with equal fervor - and it’s at this pitch heat that the song completely draws back only to slam the gas again, a brief riff your only interlude until twin vocal lines carry you home.
Rating: 9.1/10
Best Tracks: Homesick, Tyrants
Worst Tracks: Business