Two Shoes
For six guys from Melbourne, Australia, to travel half the world to record their second record indicates titanic success for their first. And that's what led the jazzed-up, funked-out popsters Cat Empire to a studio in Havana, Cuba, to follow up that million-selling debut. Here, the band takes its Latin leanings a step farther, creating room for what is billed as the Empire Horns--trombone, trumpet, and sax--in its driving, thriving beat. Lead vocalist Felix Riebl's witty intellect and dripping Aussie twang are the Cat's most distinguishing merits (see the Bob Marley love-fest of a title track and the first line of the offbeat "Sly": "If frizzy hair was a metaphor for festival time/Then this woman is a goddess of that festival shrine"). Yet compatriot Harry James Angus demands equal billing here, with contributions like the ska rave "Saltwater," the punkish memoir "The Car Song," and "Protons, Neutrons, Electrons"--an uproarious showtune of a song complete with delightful piano break and "zip-a-dee-doo" chorus. Still, co-stars aside, this is a complementary sextet that's seemingly comfortable with nearly any style of music--and willing to circle the globe to prove it.--Scott Holter