By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * * * )
Just as this, their third album, was released in Britain, the Welsh pop-rock band cancelled touring as singer Cerys Matthews sought treatment for that celebrity malaise "anxiety and exhaustion".
That does bring poignancy to an early line from the opening track Godspeed: "I've seen faces in high places messing up for good/say, what am I doing here? ..."
But if a shadow hangs over Catatonia's future, they have still delivered a set that's a step up from the unremarkable predecessor Equally Cursed and Blessed.
This shows the singular-voiced Matthews and guitarist-songwriter Mark Roberts to be in fine form, with many a spiky, lyrically wry song. Highlights include the jagged new waveish Immediate Circle, the lushly anthemic Stone by Stone, barbed ballad The Mother of Misogyny, and the possibly-not-rhetorical Is Everybody Here on Drugs?
They and the balance of the 14 tracks show that at least Catatonia's music is in rude good health.
Label: Blanco Y Negro
<i>Catatonia:</i> Paper Scissors Stone
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