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Cath Carroll

Glommer

LONDON, QUEEN OF MY HEART won't you fire up that ride again, once more, we'll watch the sun rise again waist deep in the pink serpentine me and you- London, queen of my heart. too much laughing and tumbling down upstairs on the night bus from camden town. plague rhymes and hawksmoor's lost underground and you, London, queen of my heart. London, queen of my heart. in your secret streets i've seen you naked and asleep on late nights lost in the rain and from early morning trains now you won't leave me- leave me- i keep moving but you won't let go. who'd have thought that i'd miss still those sickly summers and that old, damp chill that loves to creep in beside you while you sleep. London, queen of my heart. won't you fire up that ride again once more, take me inside again too deep in the black serpentine me and you, London, queen of my heart.

THE GRAVITY WITHIN this is not romance you see it's just the pull of gravity wrapping around you and me as if it were meant to be. i close my eyes and i can feel all of that life inside you here's where you hide wordlessly real waiting for light to find you. they keep it dark like God can't see their fingers talk while their eyes go stealing. when the walls close in here's where you come in all that scandinavian skin. pulling me in- the gravity within.

IN THE WHITE RAIN thirty three years old still daring the needle to steal your soul and you say you can't imagine what i do here. these are not the lessons we would have chosen this is not a town that too much grows in everybody cursed it and built it regardless. some things aren't there to get over you learn it the hard way. friends come to stay and say, why'd you stay here, why'd they build here, what were they thinking when they made their claims here? no, no, no, never get over. you learn it the hard way. we slowly burn, we slowly freeze and dream of marquette on his knees. if i could i'd write to you, i miss you and i love you too, but telling you so is like closing down a small war. We slowly burn, we slowly freeze and the calendar slowly drops its leaves. the avalanches, quakes and slides of paradise will pass us by. We'll be the last ones standing in the white rain.

THIS IS HOW WE FALL (Secret Way) august she slips through sycamores tangled in sorcery heaven in slow waves bends to the mercury's decree. You still hear it calling the shining shadow and now something's falling you take what you need to let go this is how we fall. don't cry, it's all right tender are the arms of night this is how you pray you laugh, you smile but you walk a long mile in your secret way. You still hear it calling ... the indigo fleet in summer thrall slows the fall of night for angels in the dust that streams eternal in the light. You still hear it calling...

YELLOW GARDEN I grow a yellow garden, it's depressing in the daytime but underneath the moonlight, you should see it shine. children once they learn to talk, soon learn to avoid me. it's been that way since i was small but most pets seem to like me so they say. (They don't call me) misfit- born out of time. (oh yes you are oh yes you are...) i was born with something missing, i cover up the holes by pumping music in my head and something in my blood to keep me steady, keep me keeping on. (They call me) misfit- born out of time. but that doesn't mean i'm beyond the things you people like- such as peace and love. this is my confession, the end of dinner parties, an awkward smile, an exchanged glance, the shifting feet- the secret dance oh i know why (they all call me) misfit- born out of time. But that doesn't mean i'm beyond the things you people like-such as peace and love. and i'm curious, getting stranger...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING pity me thinking of you. the hours worn and reason flown. where are you to help me through thoughts i shouldn't think alone. what are you doing when you're not breaking my heart does the time go slow. What are you doing when you're not breaking my heart and you know you know. pity me thinking of you. so many instincts misapplied. looking at you what am i supposed to do show me the light and i go blind what are you doing when you're not breaking my heart does the time go slow. What are you doing when you're not breaking my heart and you know- you know. count the ways i spend the days trying not to let go of what i know is true - that i'll forget you and what you do. What are you doing when you're not breaking my heart does the time go slow. And you know- you know.

GIVING IN our jewels have passed on in the attic our horses run barefoot through the paddock the madeleine crumbs and stolen cakes lie still sticky on the plate at daybreak. And we're coming down. one after one our days are gone we'll wave them good-bye together. for there's no fun in hanging on to talk, talk about the weather. sinking...singing... we're coming down. cut our boat free sail out to sea sinking deeper and down. me into you, you into me the fear that binds us unbound. sinking... singing... we're coming down. The silent inky baying of the eight-eyed guards of the wet, jet deep rouses the long-backed monster from an ancient sleep. One after one our limbs are prey but we don't feel the pain, singing as we sink- back home again,back home again, it's so good giving in, so good giving in... stroked by shiny-eyed starfish and cold-fingered squid, singing as we sink- it's so good giving in...

I REMEMBER THE SUN i remember the sun shine down through the trees it would light my way then the sky turned gray. i remember the sun like a crystal ball from the edge of the sky i would watch it fall. The passion drives you the pain relents and time goes by so slowly... i remember the sun as something real like a cavern's torch whose light i'd steal. i remember the sun as a buried shrine i abandoned once then claimed as mine. The passion drives you the pain relents and time goes by so slowly...

GREEN GROWS THE GROUND green grows the ground... and the world waits without a sound. And i watched it all i felt nothing, i felt everything, i felt lucky to get another chance. shots ring out and you can feel it shaken. new year... new world, give it back what you have taken. on the iron range, two sisters to thunder bay. through a cold wind blowing, showing no mercy. Shots ring out and you can feel it shaken. New year... new world give it back what you have taken. green grows the ground (bury it deep in the ground...) and the world waits without a sound.

YOU KNOW IT'S YOU tonight i caught a glimpse of something i thought i could not replace. And i know something's been missing since the last time i saw your face. i saw someone who... moves like you and it's all that i can do to keep my feet on the ground or stop myself from taking hold and asking why so cold, you know it's you. if that's what comes of wishful thinking i wish the ground would open up and swallow your ghost and as for me - i am already sinking. moves like you and it's all that i can do to keep my feet on the ground or stop myself from taking hold and asking why so cold, you know it's you. though it's just someone who moves like you it's all that i can do to stop myself from taking hold and saying angel. And saying, angel- i'll walk you home.

THE CIRCLE BENDS i've got no clues thought you should know. i burned those bridges so long ago. i thought, i listened, i hesitated, i missed all my chances while i waited. i think of you i think of sin. i think how long i hid that feeling. The circle bends we take the turn around again we never learn. there/s no future in the future there/s no prophet in the past. You may think you/re secure now but it won/t last. i went walking on eggshells while you were dancing on air. i went dipping in the dream well- and i drowned there. i think of you i think of sin. i think how long i hid that feeling. The circle bends we take the turn around again we never learn. idle minds rust in the gray April rain traffic and telephones nothing to say doomed to be destined for obscurity. i turned to you, you turned to stone. it haunts me most when i/m alone. So, crease the page and break the pen and close the book you barely opened. i think of you i think of sin. i think how long i hid that feeling. The circle bends we take the turn around again we never learn.

 

REVIEWS

Performing Songwriter December 2001 issue

Indie rock fans know Cath Carroll's name mainly from a legendary single by danceable jangle-punkers Unrest, who sang her praises in one of their best, most breathless songs. The homage derived from Unrest frontman Mark Robinson's obsessive love for the distinctive British pop label Factory Records, which released Carroll's solo records, as well as a few 45s by her band Miaow. Never more than a cult figure in her Manchester home (where she also operated as a rock journalist), Carroll has continued to live and record (and publish criticism) in relative obscurity since moving to Chicago and marrying her collaborator, Kerry Kelekovich.

Carroll's eponymous third solo album is her first in a half-decade, and it demonstrates a shift into fluid, guitar-spiked technopop, a la Portishead or Hooverphonic. Carroll's affectless alto weaves in and around Kelekovich's stinging guitar and the insistently bubbling electronic rhythms, creating a mood of pretty melancholy. The genuine longing in songs like "London, Queen Of My Heart" and "This Is How We Fall" comes with the mitigation of a jetsetter's sophistication. Like the best of her contemporaries in the faded UK post-punk scene, Carroll creates sad music for the comfortably well-to-do ... or those who like to fantasize that they are.

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO'S BEST NEW RECORDED MUSIC (9/00)

As a late-night companion, Cath Carroll is destined to make you laugh ruefully at the singer's brutal little asides - "this is my confession / the end of dinner parties" - while she leads you into a subversive, shadowy corner of the adult-pop universe occupied by Jobim, the pre-disco Everything But The Girl and Bryan Ferry's "The Bride Stipped Bare".Carroll, a native of England, sings with the detached cool of a bossa-nova vocalist, and her richly atmospheric songs - written in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Kerry Kelekovich- are thick with ghosts, innuendo and a vague sense of dread. -Greg Kot

Chicago Sun-Times

REASONS FOR LIVING

Carroll is the former leader of English indie darlings Miaow, a woman with such a gorgeously sleepy-seductive voice that wittier pundits than I have called her the Sade of the underground. This is her first release since 1995's well-ignored True Crime Motel on Matador, and it's enchanting trip-hop makeout music--nothing that's gonna change your life or have you doing the happy dance between your stereo speakers, but just fine when you're in the right mood. (Add a good bottle of wine, a little hooch, and some candles in the bedroom, and you and a friend will be diggin' this disc plenty.) -Jim DeRogatis

Chicago Reader

A gorgeous collection of smoky, very adult ballads written and performed by low-profile chanteuse Cath Carroll and her husband, Kerry Kelekovich (formerly of The Wildroots and Michael McDermott's band). Carroll remains best known in indie-rock circles as the object of a long-standing fixation of TeenBeat Records honcho Mark Robinson, who covered a tune by her old British band, Miaow, wrote a song about her, and even released her last album. But if you want to know why he's obsessed, check out this record: Carroll's voice is similar to, if huskier and less flexible than, Sally Timms's, but her songs, filled with couples in trouble and loners grappling with their solitude, are much darker and more reflective. -Peter Margasak

OUT MAGAZINE

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