Alpha Cat “Thatched Roof Glass House”

The quality is rich, the mixing and mastering is sublime. The lyrics are a mixture of astute quips and conundrums. The singing, mixing, and production offered in this album is crisp in quality, creatively inspiring, and sonically meeting industry specifications. The melodies and cadence for the duration of this project is majestic. The song writing is on a prolific level, think REM, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan. Songs that are cryptic with profound meaning digging beyond the surface to grasp a deeper understanding. The New York based band Alpha Cat is armed with exceptional talent to create thought provoking music, and it’s on full display on their latest album titled “Thatched Roof Glass House”.

Identifying your engaging quality as an artists serves in forming a deeper connection with an audience without knowing the wifi password. The bond goes beyond surface level and resonates on a visceral level. Ruminating music that transmits frequencies allowing one’s ascension to different mediums. Music with the ability to take you places you never been then leave you with the impression of feeling as if you actually experienced these fond experiences. This attribute in itself is uncanny, but superfluous and often exercised as one indulges in this album. An indicator that tends to separate the trendy bands from the ones offered the opportunity to become tenured.

From its inception “Mockingbird” demands the listeners attention with its panning and ambient soundscapes. On “Mockingbird” the concept is informing you to be yourself, the irony in itself is poetic prose. The syntax transmitted is elegantly germinating the listener’s device with self empowering maxims. “Be yourself or be loved” one can infer that this statement is derived to be sarcastic in a sense. This song is motivational and highly recommended for dreamers, who are content with being themselves even if it results in the lack of attention that might be garnered from being different.

Next sequencing into “Black Hole” which is spry and vibrant in rhythm paired with elegant overtones and ominous lyrics. Esoteric in it’s delivery even challenging for a trained ear to decode, but it’s so melodic that you can listen infinitely till the message seeps in like osmosis. The bass line is infectious, the melodies are magnetic. “I’m a fallen tree and you’re a wood with no ears screaming platitudes inside of a vacuum, Hundred hands clapping and you feel no better” the complicity is rich and the melodies allow for playback value.

Then transitions into “Mona Lisa in a Comic Book”. The lyrics are poignant, written by consummate professionals. The vocalist croons “He’s a goldmine in a junkyard so nobody digs him”, and “He is a bright light in a dark room so no one turns him on” those lines blew my mind literally, one of the best double entendres I’ve heard in the past decade. The story telling is superb and engaging weaving stories from different pockets of the universe. A slew of captions and sayings could be derived from this track.

“Thatched Roof Glass House” the title track is filled with veiled lyrics pertaining to a past relationship. A scorned lover reflecting on the relationship in a moment of clarity. At times you get the impression you experience when you’re engaging in an inside joke without being privy to the whole backstory. At other time you’re treated with cunning lyrics such as “When I say I’ll be right back, You say I’ll be right here... If I’m a sailor you’re an anchor baby”. The guitar riffs in the bridge section are phenomenal and heightens the momentum of the recording.

“One Day The Sun Came Up” follows with a slower tempo, the drum patterns are complex and riveting. The harmonies evoke this monastery elegance over some compelling story telling. The folklore approach is comparable to Bob Dylan, or Paul Simon. The lyrics are a point of emphasis and something this band hangs their hats on.

The next selection is “Everyday My Hearts Breaks”, this song is driven by cynicism which reverberates through almost every line constructed in this song. The singer harmonizes “Wake up get up, you never get back what you let get away.” By now I know I’ve exhausted reiterating how cunning the lyrics are on this album but aptness for clever lyrics must be appreciated in some form, so the pleasure of being able to do so is rewarding. The premise of the record is about an ex-lover expounding on the pain felt in a dissolved relationship . Then transitions into an awakening of some sort on…

“Reconsider Me” is the final track of this album. The guitar lick and concept is mundane. “Reconsider Me” sounds like a record I should’ve heard a million times over. However, to Alpha Cat’s credit I haven’t, and this is a first hearing it expressed from this perspective with this unique approach. Instead of groveling, disengaging or wallowing, they opted to simply pose the question for reconsideration. I haven’t heard too many love songs put this simply. This lacks the depth and complicity encountered on previous records and depending on the listener could be appreciated more, or disregarded for what it lacks. This lacks sizzle in its musical arrangement, but a catchy tune nonetheless.

What resonates beyond time and space is a unique connection those special artists or bands conjure that facilitates a connection with the world from a different perspective as if it’s your own. Alpha Cat throughout “Thatched Roof Glass House” exemplifies the above-mentioned in a myriad of ways. Alternative rock, soft rock, dark pop, however you opt to classify this due to the elements incorporated in its composition, do not exclude the ipso facto sentiment that it’s great music. A phenomenal body of work. This album is equipped with proverbs channeled in music, rhythms that are prescribed, and consumed via 7 anecdotes personified as antidotes injected through streams.

*Edited and revised: November 1, 2019