Cattle and Cane: Navigator

review cattle and cain x1 cong - Copy

Some albums divide opinion among people; this one can divide opinion inside your head. On one hand they’re a young British band (brother and sister) who have produced a slick pop / soft rock album that could boost them up to stadium level — particularly in the US. Well done and good luck to them.

On the other ….well, it’s just so vapid. A comparison with Fleetwood Mac could be made, as there are echoes of that earlier half-British band on this new album, but the Mac had so much more going on. We think it’s because Mac started off as blues — and heavy blues at that — and morphed into a soft rock behemoth over time. New bands head straight for the anthem-filling behemoth bit without working the clubs for several years, adding depth to their sound. It’s all clearly designed for that one purpose; not that it’s easy to write songs this slick, of course.

Comparisons have been made to the Mumfords, but again that band did not expect their album to go as huge as it did; they wrote the songs they wanted to write, not songs to catapult them to that level.

On the upside, we previously thought Cattle and Cane’s sub-Mumford folk / pop a bit boring but this is at least not boring. Every song is a masterclass in song-writing and most are instantly appealing at some level; you’d enjoy any song if you heard it on the radio.

This will do well, there’s no doubt, but it’s the disposable Big Mac and fries end of the market, not the harbour-caught fish and locally grown organic potatoes.

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  1. Cattle & Cane ‘Navigator’ Campaign Highlights – Quiet Crown

    […] “Every song is a masterclass in song-writing” – Review Corner […]