It sure is funny when screechy survivors of the post punk gender wars go all singer songwriterly on us, looking back in languor as they snuggle up to the glossily produced security blanket of middle age. The one time Miaow chanteuse and doyen of Mancunian clever clogs society doesn't quite go that far, but marriage and America has sure as hell mellowed out her more hyperactive edges. Composed and produced with guitarist beau Kerry Kelekovich, it's sophisticated dinner party noir at its jauntiest falls somewhere near the plum in gob retro stylings of Birdie, while the disco dolly pastiche of 'Mystified' is pencil skirt hilarious. Largely but quietly, however, it takes itself very seriously indeed. Lyrical concerns include a mini 'Play For Today' concerning the heroic travails of one man/woman's day-to-day adventures in transgenderdom in 1970s Manchester on 'The Divine Miss A', and, in 'Dunvant Junior Prayers,' the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster seen through Carroll's six- year-old eyes. Seductively ethereal if a tad too smooth, but a long way from Moss Side, for sure.

The first time I heard the name Cath Carroll was in relation to Unrest's tribute song. I remember the record-store guy raving about Carroll; "She's a lot like Nico," he enthused, referring to True Crime Motel, her album on Unrest leader's Mark Robinson's record label. Invoking the name of the ice goddess instantly piqued my curiosity, but True Crime Motel didn't sound a thing like Nico. I still liked it, though, but it wasn't the grand statement I'd been led to believe.

It certainly didn't prepare me for England Made Me, which could have/should have been a huge-selling record, with its breathy, Sade-meets-Everything But The Girl style of intelligent, adult contemporary style. The reissue of England Made Me was most welcome, and that it did nothing chartwise really highlights Factory's failure in those morning-after years. Listening to it now, you're really struck by how grand and how talented Carroll is, and what she could have very easily been--a talented singer with intelligence behind the voice.

It would be unfair, of course, to compare the big-budget England Made Me with Carroll's latest album, The Gondoliers of Ghost Lake. True talent doesn't need a six-figure budget to justify its beauty, or, indeed, to make a beautiful song. The Gondoliers of Ghost Lake certainly sounds like a million bucks, even if it didn't cost that much to make. Carroll posseses a golden-chill of a voice, one that could sing the alphabet and leave you anxiously waiting to see how it ends. With a voice like that, though, it really doesn't matter if you've spent millions of dollars or hundreds of dollars--it's still going to come through.

To Carroll's credit, she's not trying to relive her former glories. Instead, she's doing what she does best, and that is making dark pop songs. There are obvious hints, of course, but those moments never overwhelm the album. While "Mystified" directly recalls the driving beat of "Train You're On," it's about the only place you'd notice a direct connection to England Made Me. The Gondoliers of Ghost Lake runs the gamut of musical styles, from the balladry of "7/7" the overcast pop of "The Divine Miss A," "Falling Over Tomorrow" and "Duvant Junior Prayers," and the atmospheric, heavy-breather of "Leaving Song," and Carroll never delivers anything less than her best. Of course, special mention should be made of Carroll's husband, producer Kerry Kelekovich, because his backing work is just as much a part of what's made Gondoliers a beautiful record. His musical abilities and production skills have given Carroll a full-band backing, when in fact he was the only musician backing her up in the studio! Brilliant production.

The Gondoliers of Ghost Lake is a proudly defiant record; it flows seamlessly and beautifully from beginning to end, uncompromising in its quality and its beauty. Carroll deserves an award for perseverance, and the hard work spent on this record really paid off. If you like pop music spiked with intelligence and chased with truly beautiful singing, then you have no excuse for not seeking out The Gondoliers of Ghost Lake. The mere fact that a record like this exists proves to me that some people out there still have faith in pop music, and it gives me hope that others will follow suit. Quietly innovative and always seductive, Carroll's an unknown and untapped pop goldmine. Now that you have been informed, you now have no excuse to bemoan the state of pop music.

 

LTM's re-issue of ex-MIAOW prime mover and NME scribe CATH CARROLL'S excellent solo debut "England Made Me" earlier this year was more than enough to whet the appetite for this, her brand new studio album and long-awaited follow up to 2000's "Cath Carroll." This writer must hold up his hand and admit he's not had the opportunity to check out the "Cath Carroll" album, but if it's even half as good as "The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake" it'll be a mighty record, as "...Ghost Lake" is a superb album, full of poise and resonant songs from Carroll and husband Kerry Kelekovich.

Certainly if you're coming to "...Ghost Lake" directly from "England Made Me", this will quickly throw you a dummy sonically. Carroll's lovely, breathy voice is intact (actually, she sounds better than ever), but there are a lot of musical changes. For a start, "EMM" relied heavily on machine-tooled grooves and Latin percussion, while here expansive, live-sounding pop landscapes crop up from the fertile soil, and while breakbeats are still utilised (not least on the strange, but likeable junglist hybrid "Mystified"), there's less emphasis on the Latino element.

"...Ghost Lake" begins and comes full circle with the beautiful, melancholy sliver of "All Of Our Lives", setting up a canvas for Carroll's emotional lyrical brush strokes. Cath and Kerry have no problem in turning in unashamed pop moments here either: "The Boy From Islamorada", "Free" and the great "Divine Ms .A" all being examples of 24-carat songwriting. This latter drops is back into Carroll's Mancunian landscape with this fascinating tale of a transgendered Manc character featuring both some inspired wordplay ("The sanitation always caused great consternation") and a tune with definite universal appeal.

"Free", meantime, nods vigourously to classic Brit psych-pop (imagine a supercharged "See My Friends" by The Kinks), while in the monster dance beats and distorto guitars of downtrodden anthem "Average And Unsaved" and "Man Goes Down The Highway"s dubby folk-pop, Cath's delivering material to knock spots off the more celebrated female talents like Beth Orton. But "...Ghost Lake" also works like a charm when they slow the pace a little. Indeed, with the sumptuous acoustic ballad "In Your Own Way" and the tender "Dunvant Junior Prayers" - an elegy to those lost in the horrific 1966 Aberfan slag heap disaster - she's turning in career highlights to date. Carroll was 6 when Aberfan happened and lived only 50 miles away. If you fail to be moved by her lyrics here ("This nation was built upon their battered backs and crippled lungs") you must possess a heart of the coldest stone.

Blessed with a virtually non-existent quotient of duff tracks, "The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake" is truly a fine album by an exceptionally under-rated singer/songwriter. LTM release goodies from her MIAOW past next year. Make sure to earmark those in your diary, too.

TIM'S TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2002

1. WILCO - "YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT" (NONESUCH)

2. CHRIS MILLS - "THE SILVER LINE" (POWERLESS POP/ LOOSE)

3. JESSE MALIN - "THE FINE ART OF SELF-DESTRUCTION" (ONE LITTLE INDIAN)

4. THE CORAL - "THE CORAL" (DELTASONIC)

5. LOW - "TRUST" (ROUGH TRADE)

6. GUIDED BY VOICES - "UNIVERSAL TRUTHS & CYCLES" (MATADOR)

7. JAMES YORKSTON & THE ATHLETES - "MOVING UP COUNTRY" (DOMINO)

8. FLAMING LIPS - "YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS" (WARNER BROS)

9. THE D4 - "THE 6TWENTY" (INFECTIOUS)

10. McALMONT & BUTLER - "BRING IT BACK" (CHRYSALIS)

11. NADA SURF - "LET GO" (HEAVENLY)

12. SILVER JEWS - "BRIGHT FLIGHT" (DOMINO)

13. CHUMBAWAMBA - "READYMADES" (MUTT)

14. CATH CARROLL - "GONDOLIERS OF GHOST LAKE" (LTM)

15. SOFT BOYS - "NEXTDOORLAND" (MATADOR)

16. BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB - "BRMC" (VIRGIN)

17. SIXTEEN HORSEPOWER - "FOLKLORE" (GLITTERHOUSE)

18. WILT - "MY MEDICINE" (MUSHROOM)

19. THE HALCYON BAND - "SIROCCO" (EGGBERT)

20. DAVID HOLMES - "..PRESENTS THE FREE ASSOCIATION" (13 AMP)

Miaow is one of those curious groups whose mystique and influential sway greatly overshadowed their meager recorded output. Between 1985-1987, the band contributed "Sport Most Royal" to NME's original C-86 compilation, recorded two sessions with legendary British DJ John Peel , and released an unforgettable single on Factory Records. If these feats don't solidify Miaow's old-school indie cred, vocalist Cath Carroll also wrote for NME, married Big Black guitarist Santiago Durango, and went on to be the fanboy fantasy of TeenBeat's Mark Robinson. But the best thing about Miaow's legacy? They actually deserve it. Songs like "Did She?," "Grocer's Dead Daughter," and "Following Through" sound so impossibly fresh, it's difficult to believe they aren't 21st century recordings from Slumber Party ,Belle & Sebastian , or the Shermans . No matter what the genre was eventually called -- twee, indie pop, shambling, etc. -- Miaow's effortless melodies, bittersweet lyrics, and complete lack of musical pretense contributed significantly to its blueprint. When It All Comes Down is the definitive Miaow retrospective. It includes all of the trio's studio material, their two John Peel sessions, and previously unheard demos of "Fear of the Sun" and "Carnal Drag," which were recorded for the infamous, unfinished Factory release Priceless Innuendo.

Whisperin' & Hollerin' have been more than happy to succumb to the (vastly under-rated) charms of Cath Carroll's songs via LTM's 2002 releases, her recent studio album "Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake" and the re-issue of her 1991 debut solo album "England Made Me." So, "When It All Comes Down" is a timely compilation of Cath's pre-solo days as leader of intriguing Mancunian trio MIAOW, who left a small but significant stamp on the 1980s with three fine singles, two dynamite Peel sessions and - if there'd been a reversal of fortune/ circumstance - they'd surely have gone on to produce a fine body of work in their own right. Instead of pondering the 'what if's, though, concentrate on the 20 tracks now collected together here: in effect collecting all MIAOW'S distinctive and sophisticated songs under one robust umbrella.

This writer was previously aware of MIAOW'S two Factory singles, "When It All Comes Down" and the hard-edged, dancier "Break The Code" (both 1987), but these are only the tip of the iceberg, being joined by MIAOW'S debut single "Belle Vue" and its' attendant tracks, the aforementioned Peel Sessions and a couple of surprises. Tense, trebly and fleshed out with some cheap toytown organ, "Belle Vue" and "Fate" immediately impinge, employing the sort of supple disco beats so beloved of dance-enhanced Manchester. Along with "Sport Most Royal" - the band's contribution to the NME'S legendary c86 compilation - these songs show that while MIAOW'S sonic coat may have shone with the jangly sheen of the times, in Carroll's airy voice and the depth of material they were ahead of much of the mid-1980s competition.

Typically, though, the two John Peel sessions brought out the best in MIAOW and the eight Maida Vale-recorded songs here are sublime. Future B-side "Did She?" kicks off the first (1986), showcasing a band approaching their peak, while the 1987 session is crammed with jewels; not least the rolling, propulsive "Thames At High Water" and a revamped and stronger version of "Fate." These songs are descriptive and intuitive; demonstrating not only that Cath Carroll was a writer and singer of note, but that in bassist Steve Macguire and drummer Chris Fenner, she had two wily acolytes in rhythm.

Meanwhile, the tracks from the "Break The Code" single and "Carnal Drag" and "Fear Of The Sun" suggest MIAOW were evolving quickly. The embrace of funk and technology - both synonymous with Factory - is all too apparent here, while the sinewy basslines and busy percussion of "Carnal Drag" suggests Cath was already opening herself up to the Latin American elements that inform "England Made Me." The daft version of Elvis' "King Creole" - again from an NME-sponsored project - is by some way the least essential thing here, but it's still fun nonetheless.

In any case, you're already more than sold on MIAOW'S oeuvre well before the finishing line looms in sight. "When It All Comes Down", then, acts as both a testament to a fine band who burnt brightly, if (too) briefly and an important signpost on the road to Cath Carroll's solo career. Extensive scrutiny of both is most definitely recommended.

 

We've happily and rightfully extolled the virtues and greatness of Cath Carroll's recent albums, both old and new. Both albums are shining examples of Carroll's singing ability, and both are records that should be sought out. As curiosity often does, it's easy to ask the question, "where did she come from?" A talent such as hers simply doesn't come from nowhere, does it? Of course not.

Thankfully, her roots have been gathered and packaged together all nice and neat in one compact collection, and it's easy to understand why those lovely folk at LTM would want to save Miaow from a painfully wrong burial in the dustbin of pop obscurity.

Despite massive searches on my part, I've only been able to find one of them, FAC 179, "When It All Comes Down." After hearing Unrest's cover of it on A Factory Record, I wanted to hear the original version. Three years later I found it, and immediately wanted to hear more Miaow, though every search turned up nothing.

Miaow was on-again and off-again band for several years under different names. Starting off in Manchester as Glass Animals, Carroll and company moved to London and regrouped under then name Gay Animals, before changing the name once again to the safer yet still animalistic Miaow. For two years, they were Miaow, and in that time, they managed to release three singles, (one for a one-release only label, two for the esteemed Factory Records), a track on the now-famous C-86 compilation, as well as two Peel Sessions.

Their first release was a three-track EP entitled "Belle Vue," and was a charming debut - "charming" meaning cute in a child learning how to talk; they're precious for trying, but they're not succeeding, and the only thing that can help them is growth and maturity. Perhaps it's the sloppy playing, perhaps it's the terrible organ that sticks out (and is explained in the hilarious liner notes), but these first-step moments are a far cry from what was to come - though I was charmed by "Grocer's Devil Daughter," where all of these slips and trips really work well together.

When they appeared on C-86, they'd dropped that organ and were all the better for it. Not too long after, they recorded their first Peel Session, and these songs reveal that Miaow had refined their sound even further; "Did She" and "Following Through" are both rather strong numbers - much better than anything they'd previously done. The other two songs from that session, "Three-Quarters of the Way to Paradise" and "Cookery Casualty" never really gather much momentum; the experiments don't quite work, and the most clever thing about them are the titles. By the time they'd reached their Factory debut, "When It All Comes Down," Miaow really were at the top of their game. They had set aside a lot of the more "experimental" moments, and focused directly on their songwriting, and it showed.

Compare Peel Sessions and the studio version of "Did She" to witness how tight they had become in such a short amount of time. It's best to ignore the remixed version of "When It All Comes Down," from the 12" version of FAC 179. Thankfully, it's separated from the other two songs, because it's terrible, and it takes away from the original version. (Since I've had the 12", I've listened to that remix version only twice--the second time was when I listened to this collection!) If ever Miaow were poised for something greater, "When It All Comes Down" should have been that stepping-stone.

Should have been, but alas, it didn't happen. It's sad, because their second Peel Session is fantastic, and their final single, "Breaking The Code," was a great record, even if it didn't have quite the magical punch of "When It All Comes Down." I'm not exactly sure, but I'm pretty certain that their demise had to do with age. Carroll's singing was getting better; the other musicians were also growing stronger, and by their final recordings, you can tell that Carroll's voice had outgrown the twee pop of Miaow. The solo experimenting that the rest of the band were doing didn't help, either; Carroll admits that when she heard some of the others' solo stuff, she liked them better than Miaow's! Their two album demos show that Carroll and company sounded bored; Carroll, for one, doesn't sound particularly enthused. Their demise was not unexpected; before you bemoan it, though consider this little fact: Miaow couldn't have made England Made Me.

Miaow's legacy may be barely a footnote of a footnote in the annals of pop history, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that Miaow never once sounded like they weren't having fun, and isn't that more important than a legacy? When It All Comes Down is a fun listen, too, and if you're a fan of Cath Carroll (or Unrest!), then this little record will certainly please you.

 

Perfect Cheekbones Miaow: When It All Comes Down (LTM)

There's a bit in an obscure St Etienne song where Stephen Duffy says that if you remember the '80s you weren't really there. Well sometimes I think that I don't remember the 1980s, so I guess I must have been there, although really I wasn't anywhere. Except purgatory perhaps, although I presume we all think this of our adolescence, whenever they happen to happen. Or not, as the case might appear to be.

So I don't remember Miaow. I don't remember how between 1985 and 1987 they shimmered and shivered, sounding like some strange lost soul wandering the glassy streets in the dead of night with scalpel blades taped to finger tips. It escapes me exactly how or why bands sounded the way Miaow did: all complex simplicity and simple complexions, but I'm glad they did.

I have no memories of their brittle and muted funk guitars invading my head now; no late-teenage epiphanies come to mind that went hand in hand with their meet-me-behind-the-bike-sheds skiffle swing, or with their sly shuffles and skipped feet in gasoline puddles. Never being one to listen to late-night radio (I was far too busy sleeping or reading architectural history books, I'm afraid to say) I have no awareness of the two slinky sessions they recorded for John Peel in '86 and '87, and didn't know that the songs therein swung from chandeliers in icy abandoned palatial mansions, showering the peeling walls with pinpricks of silver.

Others will remember much better than I how Miaow were feted at the time by a music press that still cared to dare and dared to care (or at least that's how it seemed, or seems in retrospect - I'm perfectly willing to accept that this may just be me looking at history through oddly tinted spectacles). They will nod sagely when they cast their memories back and remember the shows they played as support to Sonic Youth, Nick Cave and, perhaps most bizarrely of all, to Butthole Surfers at the legendary Ambulance Station.

Miaow sounded nothing like any of those groups of course, which was inevitably why they should have been on the same bill of course; parts of the '80s being about risks and eclectic mixing. Not that I really remember of course, and not that you'd guess it from the retrospectives hurled about by the mainstream media. But that's the mainstream media for you. Miaow were never mainstream, which isn't to say they were pointedly or consciously 'difficult', just that they were too naturally obtuse and slightly skewed to ever really mix it with whatever it was that clogged up the mainstream charts of the time. Because as I say, I don't really remember those times at all...

And being one for whom visual keys often open doors of remembrance, I don't even feel a flicker of recognition on seeing the sleeves of their two Factory singles 'When It All Comes Down' and 'Break The Code', although if pressed I would suggest to myself that I may have seen the iconic former pinned to a desk beside Patrick's drawing board, Patrick being the owner of the finest cheekbones ever and the owner of a healthy obsession with all things Factory. And more than most, Miaow sounded like perfect cheekbones.

 

One more blast from Manchester's B-list black and white back pages, as Factory kitten Cath Carroll curls up all cozy in her mid-eighties pop bubblegum girly garage mode before the world turned day-glo. The grab-bag of singles, Peel sessions and leftovers gathered here attempt to meld Dorothy Parker, Dickens and LS Lowry sepia tones. Instead, their post Smithsian, but altogether less legendary fingers and thumbs jingle jangle, build-a-shed drum skitters and defiantly hands-in-pockets luddism in the face of the ever looming sheen of slick-backed Thatcherism leaves them sprightly under-achievers. They could've been the next small thing, but, 'Thames At High Water' and 'The Dreamer's Death' aside, ended up the prettiest of wallflowers.

Dans les années 80 et au début des années 90, Manchester est sans doute la ville la plus productive en matière de bons groupes. Cela se confirme avec le cas de Cath Carroll chanteuse mancunienne (très) injustement oubliée. Cette militante féministe a participé activement à la vie musicale de l'époque : journaliste du NME, manageuse de Ludus, rédactrice d'un fanzine. Elle faisait de la muscu dans la même salle de sport que Peter Hook , et (fait nettement plus mythique), a été l'une des rares filles à être signée sur le label Factory. D'abord avec son groupe Miaow en 1984, sorte de croisement ludique entre les Smiths et the Fall, puis avec son premier album solo le sublime "England made me".

En marge des groupes qui s'adonnaient alors joyeusement à une pop teintée de house, "England made me" s'inscrit dans une lignée d'élite qui lorgne depuis longtemps sur le soleil brésilien et son jazz suave. On appelle ça "escapism", et A Certain Ratio, Kalima, Quando Quango, Ludus, notamment, s'en donnent à coeur joie.

De même, pour Cath, être née à Manchester n'est pas une chance, mais une malédiction dont elle fait les frais. Sur "England made me", la chanson titre, elle avoue ce qui peut résumer l'esprit de sa musique : "L'Angleterre m'a faite, m'a prise, m'a violée et m'a brisée". Elle s'échappe donc à sa condition d'anglaise prédestinée (condamnée ?) au rock en plongeant dans des influences jazzy et bossa. Elle décide même d'enregistrer ses titres à Sao Paulo. Mais on est loin ici de la légèreté façon Gilberto, "England made me" est une structure complexe, à l'électronique raffinée et aux mélodies millimétrées. Cath n'a pas choisi la simplicité , et les critiques semblent lui reprocher. Jugée trop musicienne , trop appliquée , trop soucieuse, pour les premières oreilles qui écoutent l'album, elle en fait trop ! comme si les chanteuses pop devaient se cantonner à l'allégresse d'une Claudine Longuet.

La voix puissante et mutine de Cath Carroll peut irriter (un magazine de l'époque, le Evening Standard, l'a comparée à Morrissey), tout autant qu'elle peut fasciner, mais c'est le type de voix même qui vous fend le coeur.

Car la musique de Cath Carroll, tout comme sa voix, n'en appelle pas à l'esprit, mais aux sens (même si la musique est extrêmement travaillée).

L'ambiance ici est chaude comme les plages de Copacabana, et on se laisse facilement entraîner par les guitares sales, les breaks rythmiques entêtants, notamment parce que l'album débute par la sensualité dansante de "moves like you", aux allures tubesques, qu'on retrouve sur une des compiles "Palatine". Cette réussite "dance-pop-electro" absolue préfigure à elle seule le meilleur de Saint Etienne.

La sublime "Train you're on" nous trouble au plus profond de nous-mêmes avec ces chuchotements et son rythme lourd et sensuel . Caliente!!!

"Next time" a des airs de samba endiablée. Cath Carroll se place très près du soleil. Si sa place n'est pas à Manchester, sans doute est-ce parce que Cath Carroll mérite le ciel.

Sa voix puissante, et son physique sexy et félin auraient pu faire d'elle une sorte de Björk indie, mais Cath hélas est tombée dans l'oubli. Réfugiée aux Etats Unis, où elle continue à écrire des chansons de folk triste et intimiste, et des livres (dont une biographie sur Tom Waits), elle pourrait cependant devenir de nouveau moderne. En effet après la ressortie de "England Made Me", les Temps Modernes ont commercialisé en novembre 2002 "The Gondoliers of Ghost Lake", ainsi que des rééditions de Miaow . Et "True crime hotel" est à venir pour cette année, et ce serait un vrai crime que de passer à côté. Remercions encore Ltm de livrer cette remarquable bataille contre l'oubli.

 

Now (9/02) Reviewed by Fred Dellar

Over a decade on it still sounds classy, an amalgam of Latin beat and European machine grooves, like New Order accosting Sade on a jazz cruise. The title track may sound like a joyous salsa ride, but lyrically it's a vehicle for Carroll to express her disillusionment with her homeland. This combination of salsa and sadness is a compelling one.

Then (4/91) Reviewed by Dave Henderson

Superficially it would be easy to dismiss ex-NME journalist and Miaow leader Cath Carroll's debut solo album as nothing more than a backward glance at the Latin-influenced groove of Blue Rondo A La Turk, Matt Bianco and even Basia. But, although several of the tracks here have commercial appeal and Cath possesses a beautifully pitched vocal style, it's the odd mixture of authentic Brazilian rhythms and European electronic austerity that make England Made Me larger than life. It's a powerful mixture of sounds and styles that becomes yet more perverse with the closing tracks on each side. Last year's single Beast is scary and sensual, whilst Train You're On introduces an angry guitar and a further slice of menace: its offbeat fusion is startling and makes the rest of the set almost ordinary by comparison. For those two tracks alone, England Made Me is a must.

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'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's Indie Top 10 2000

 

Chicago Sun-Times (10/00) Reviewed by Jim DeRogatis

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.)

 

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.

 

OUT MAGAZINE (10/00) Reviewed by Peter Terzian

A smoky-voiced siren who evokes comparisons to Astrud Gilberto and Sade, Manchester native Cath Carroll was one of the true cult figures of the American and British independent music scenes in the early '90s. (Her Factory Records debut, England Made Me, is a lost classic of dreamy bossa novas and brooding dance tunes.) On her third solo album Carroll, now a Chicago resident, cooly muses on the myths and mysteries of the American heartland: "I Remember the Sun" is a shimmering Western noir, while "You Know It1s You" reworks one of her early singles (19911s "Moves Like You") into a gritty porn-soundtrack outtake. Darkly intelligent and deliciously complex, Cath Carroll is testimony to one of indie rock's most intoxicating voices.

 

America On-Line (12/00) Reviewed by David Quantick

LP's Of The Year

The great thing about album of the year lists is that no-one can ever remember anything that happened more than a month ago, so any band foolish enough to release an album in January or, say, November will be forgotten by posterity (if you define "posterity", that is, as a big list in a music paper, which I don't. I'm not drunk. I just haven't quite got dressed yet. This week). Just as Greatest Albums Of All Time lists are always compiled by gimpaloids for whom history began with Radiohead (double history, perhaps, followed by a particularly long math lesson and a detention supervised by a kind of mind control robot with flashing red eyes and hacksaws instead of fingers), er, so albums of the year are always a bit too recent.

Cath Carroll hung out with Morrissey as a lass, then went sane and spent the 1980s in indie group Miaow, signed to Factory, made her first album in London and Brazil, and then moved to Chicago. But then, don't we all? This is her third album and it's excellent, from the wistful London, Queen Of My Heart to the rolling You Know It's You. After an absence caused by record company shenanigans and the like, it seems likely that she might make an album more than once every demi-decade.

 

Village Voice Pazz and Jop 2000 Peter Terzian's 2000 Ballot

1 Aimee Mann Bachelor No. 2 SuperEgo

2 The Go-Betweens The Friends of Rachel Worth Jetset

3 Yo La Tengo And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out Matador

4 U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind Interscope

5 Travis The Man Who Columbia

6 Kirsty MacColl Tropical Brainstorm Import

7 Saint Etienne Sound of Water Sub Pop

8 Josh Rouse Home Rykodisc

9 Rickie Lee Jones It's Like This Artemis

10 Cath Carroll Cath Carroll Heart and Soul

ARCHIVES

In one sense, Cath Carroll makes some of the most confrontational alternative-rock music around. That's not easy these days. When even major labels are willing to shell out cash money for the privilege of releasing some very outre sounds, how can a musician break new ground? Carroll's method is softness, not harshness. The transplanted Briton, now a Chicagoan, purveys a soothing, percolating groove that shares some theoretical foundations with the work of the lush pop proselytizers in Scritti Politti and the Pet Shop Boys. But her music is also a farrago of curious influences: Brazilian dance pop, the Manhattan Transfer, Herb Albert maybe, and (mostly because of Carroll's potent low-volume vocalizing) Sade. She's found a genuinely new frontier: underground MOR.

-Bill Wyman Chicago Reader

 

It has taken forever, but the lonely Stockport girl who portioned out her heart between Manhattan Transfer and Suicide finally stalks among us in her own image. 'Beast' signalled it, 'England Made Me', her flawlessly scary debut LP proves it.

-Mark Sinker Select

 

Fusing the limpid loopy melody ambiance of Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks soundtrack with the gritty flavour of a modern urban noir thriller.

-Paul Davies Q Magazine / Emap

 

Her lyrics, impressionistic and surprising, paint pictures whose messages fade in and out of focus-but are always intriguing to gaze at.

-Anthony DeCurtis Men's Journal

 

Singing in a cool, understated voice that's closer in feel to Sade's than Courtney Love's, and backed by subtle Caribbean rhythms, this erstwhile British chanteuse doesn't sound like anybody else in the indie-rock world, and that's a major plus. The melodies are smoky and subtle, as is the voice, and the rhythms are perfect for swaying on a hammock. But donÕt get too comfortable- Carroll's tales of romantic burnout have a nasty little bite to them.

-Greg Kot Chicago Tribune

 

And now, just as I'd almost forgotten Cath Carroll, these pensive, languid lullabies come drifting by. 'England Made Me' is truly ravishing.

-Ian Gittins Melody Maker

 

A clutch of songs which wouldn't seem out of place on a Gram Parsons album...if Elvis Costello arranged it, and Debbie Harry washed up the dishes.

-Dave Thompson Alternative Press

 

The former Miaow singer relocated to the states a few years ago and, after experimenting with South American rhythms, she's checked into a cheap motel where every door, staircase and hallway echoes with some character's story... Carroll's hushed and expressive voice is perfect for these low-rent tales, spreading an opium-like sense of calm, particularly on the gorgeous 'I Know' and 'Into Day'.

-Steve Malins VOX Magazine

 

Alternative Press (USA)

A voice which is truly one of rock's most seductive deadly weapons

 

London Evening Standard (UK)

[Cath] Carroll deserves plenty of second looks. Stick around. SheÕs going to be very good

 

Greg Kot Chicago Tribune (USA)

Witty and subversive...

 

Sam King Sounds (UK)

The hard-core Sade has arrived

 

Bill Graham Hot Press (Ireland)

Cath Carroll definitely belongs among the more deserving artistic anomalies

 

Jim DeRogatis Chicago Sun-Times (US)

Cath Carroll has a beautiful voice

 

Paul Mathur Melody Maker (UK)

Cath Carroll fitfully stumbles on a unbeatable way to charm birds out of trees

 

Helen Marie Dickerson Music Ô91(Australia)

Like the work of Depeche Mode and Marianne Faithful, her work is a discerning blend of intelligence and emotion

 

Q Magazine (UK)

True Crime Motel is a quietly gripping snapshot of low lifeÕs, love lives and shadowy displaced characters

 

CMJ New Music Report (USA)

An impressive, if little-known, musical career...