Track Listing

1. Dead From The Waist Down
2. Londinium
3. She's A Millionaire
4. Storm The Palace
5. Karaoke Queen
6. Bulimic Beats
7. Shoot The Messenger
8. Postscript
9. Valarian Unwanted
10. Nothing Hurts
11. Dazed Beautiful And Bruised

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28714 in Music
• Released on: 1999-04-12
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
If International Velvet was Catatonia exploding into the public sights, Equally Cursed And Blessed is the sound of a band realising what's happened, and as such it is a much more personal album. Opening track "Dead From The Waist Down" is the view of America from a tour bus window, while "Bulimic Beats" is glassily fragile and backs Cerys' voice with a harp. Not that it lacks humour, even given the subject matter; The line "A front line with labels where I witness custard's last stand" shows a continued and healthy approach to taking the piss. In other places, Catatonia stomp in wittily as they always have, particularly with "Londinium" ("I come alive outside the M25") and the wonderful, Clash-tinged "Storm The Palace", an anti-Royalist song suggesting what we can do with the Queen and her house ("Turn it into a bar, let them work in Spar"). Plus, on "She's A Millionaire", Cerys has the best pronunciation of the word gynaecology ever put to record. --Emma Johnston

Customer Reviews

Egually Cursed and Blessed
I first became aware of Catatonia in '98, when "Mulder and Scully" was released. Since then I have followed everything they have done. I believe this to be their best album to date, as it is far more in depth than previous releases "Way Beyond Blue" and "International Velvet", this is desplayed for example in the beautiful "Bulimic Beats", although keeping the brilliance that Catatonia naturally possess. A must have album for all music lovers.

Well worth a listen
Okay, so it probably would be unfair to compare this album with the pure brilliance of International Velvet/Way Beyond Blue but that is no reason to write it off! Listen to the wonderful Dead From The Waist Down, The lively Karaoke Queen, the slow beautiful Bullimic Beats, Valerian and then be amazed by the catchiness of Dazed Beautiful and Bruised, Nothing Hurts and Shoot The Messenger! By this CD now and set yourself back for hours worth of musical enjoyment!

A Lost Gem
Cataonia's third album must go down in musical history as one of the most maligned releases of all time. Following on the back of their hugely successful 'International Velvet' (an album that was far from perfect itself) expectations were running unbearably high. The band, instead of trying to match 'Velvet's' Britpop thrash and bluster wisely chose melodic introspection and wider, more thoughtful palette of topics.

Sure, the big pop songs were there with 'Londinium', 'She's A Millionaire', 'Karaoke Queen' all crammed with more hooks than a fisherman's kit bag. But it was the the sheer beauty of songs like 'Bulimic Beats' (admittedly a terrible title that did the song no favours), 'Dead From The Waist Down' and 'Nothing Hurts' that melt the heart. 'Valerian' is one of their most lovely melodies set to a gently pulsing beat that showcases Cerys Matthews' vocals perfectly.

The only weak song is the rather formless 'Post Script', but again, it's only because it is set amongst such quality. Maybe it was the unweildy album title or the horrible artwork, but the commonly held view that this is a clunker is woefully wrong.

It's time for a reassessment of a lost gem