Track Listing

1. Streets Of New York
2. A Bird In Hand
3. Oxygen
4. Open Roads
5. This Endless Rain
6. Blue Light Alarm
7. Morning Sunshine
8. Seed Song
9. What Kind Of Man
10. Ruby
11. Elen

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24695 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-21
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Following on from her departure from Catatonia, Cerys Matthews went on to make her solo debut in her new home, Nashville, in 2003. This second solo album is another batch of intelligent pop fused with country, soul and folk, which suits her sweet husky voice perfectly.

Customer Reviews

A grower...
When I first heard this album I was a little bit disappointed, mainly because if the 'loudness' of some of the songs, on one song you can barely hear Cerys sing over the very loud drums - but after a few listens I'm completly hooked!

Streets of New York is a brilliant, upbeat opener for the CD (and the recent live shows) When Cerys sings "Please don't be alarmed, I'm at the start of something" she's not wrong.

There's a good mix of musical styles on the album from Oxygen, where Cerys lets loose for a rip roaring finish; The Endless Rain which is a slow, piano ballad and Ruby, which sounds a bit like an acid trip!

Get this album as soon as you can, you will not be disappointed!

Never Said Goodbye? You'll Be Glad She Didn't
Cerys' second solo album sees her moving away from the contry-esque, bluegrass feel of cockahoop and back to a fuller band sound. However, its still a world away from Catatonia and is hard to describe what genre it falls into. There's elements of psychadelic pop, rock, and a bit of folk thrown in for good measure but what remains constant throughout is the superb standard of songwriting, which is intelligent and melodic. Cerys definitely has a 'marmite' voice - people either tend to love it or hate it. I fall into the first category and can honestly say it's never sounded better than it does now. Her vocals move effortlessly from a soothing whisper (Blue Light Alarm) to soaring (Open Roads) to all-out howling (Oxygen - probably the best song on the album) coming fairly close to her old Catatonia sound in parts. The really good thing about this release though is that it builds on her former music career and doesn't try to imitate it. The album follows a musical journey, mirroring the personal one taken by Cerys in her post Catatonia days, from escaping her problems and fleeing to America in the opening track 'Streets of New York' to finding happiness and returning home to Wales for the albums closer, the beautiful welsh-language ballad 'Elen'. A truly fantastic album that deserves the title of 2006's best kept musical secret - buy it!

Insanely catchy album
I took a punt on this, having loved the first Catatonia album and disliked the subsequent ones. I'm so glad I did, it's the best album I've bought in years. It's a complete mix of styles, even within songs, but it works. Clever and FUN.