MUSIC PREMIERES
Eight Heaton Parks and 10 Wembley Stadiums – those are the shows rumoured for Oasis’ mega reunion tour next year. The combined capacity is more than the population of some countries, and yet it still doesn’t seem enough to meet the demand. Catfish And The Bottlemen, meanwhile – who co-headline Reading 2024 tonight ahead of the Liam Gallagher show said to break the news we thought we’d never hear – have more modest yet still wildly ambitious shows on their horizon.
When the Welsh indie stars recently announced plans for their first stadium gigs at Cardiff Principality and the Spurs ground, many took online to express doubt that they had the following and momentum to pull it off and fill ’em up. The last time Catfish topped the bill here was on a run of 2021 shows many believed to be their last. Twitter and tabloids spoke of their demise as the Welsh rock machine seemed to power down before a few years of silence. With no new music and no rise in profile, is a stadium run really the wisest move?
Well, as Jim Morrison said in Wayne’s World 2, “If you book it, they will come”. Do you believe in manifesting the big stuff? Catfish sure bloody do. Their opening song carries that spirit: “One of our longshots paid off”.
The band didn’t split the other year, but now frontman Van McCann and bassist Benji Blakeway are the only remaining full-time members after others fell away due to “entirely dysfunctional” relationships. What we’re left with here is a lean, mean, rock machine. Indie disco staple ‘Kathleen’ feels like it might lift the rammed front sections of Reading off the ground before sound issues force a halt. Even then, McCann, in his element, tries to gee up the crowd in full house party mode before a brief interlude. He bursts back on straight into the line “You’re simpaticooooo”, as if nothing had happened. Nothing is gonna get in their way tonight.
Inflatable crocodiles are dispersed for ‘Soundcheck’ as McCann flails and wails like Cobain, before ‘Pacifier’ gets the masses up on one another’s shoulders for the first of many times this evening. Here, as on ‘Taste’, there’s a snarling indie sensibility met with chest-beating arena bravado – as if The Cribs shed their punk edge, beefed up on riffs and adopted the The Killers‘s knack to rattle the eyeballs of the fans at the back. It’s indie sleaze turned up to 11.
They see where they’re headed. There’s a cheeky, brief nod to their stadium-dwelling countrymen Stereophonics with a snippet of ‘The Bartender And The Thief’, while the spotlight and theatrics of ‘2all’ show they’ve got the moves for the big spaces. The widescreen psych wig-out and breakdown of ‘Outside’ even has a smack of Pink Floyd to it. They’re playing with a damn sight more compulsion than last time, and they certainly know what an enormodome band should look, sound and feel like. The crowd before us lap it up. Will they multiply to fill those spaces? Maybe the long shot will pay off.
‘Longshot’
‘Kathleen’
‘Soundcheck’
‘Pacifier’
‘Twice’
‘Fallout’ (with snippet of Stereophonics’ ‘Bartender and the Thief’)
‘2all’
‘Homesick’
‘Rango’
‘Outside’
‘Fluctuate’
‘7’
‘Cocoon’
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MUSIC PREMIERES
Lykke Li didn’t hold back when speaking about the making of her sixth studio album, ‘The Afterparty’, during a listening session in Los Angeles earlier this year. “Let’s talk about the album. It was a motherfucker to make,” she admitted to the crowd. While balancing motherhood, the chaos of modern culture shaped by Trump and AI, and her own desire to create something more “extroverted, impulsive and chaotic” than ‘EYEYE’, as she previously shared with NME, the Swedish alt pop star arrived at a headspace that “feels like it’s 4am and the sun is going to rise”. The record captures that blurry final moment before regret, exhaustion and reality settle in, which makes it even more emotional considering she has hinted this could potentially be her final album.
There is something fitting about how brief the project feels. With only nine tracks running across 24 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Lykke immediately drops listeners into the atmosphere with opener ‘Not Gon Cry’, painting a picture of those lonely early morning hours with the line, “No angels here tonight, no dancing queens.” Alongside the shadowy pulse of ‘Happy Now’ and the twisted disco energy of ‘Lucky Now’, she revisits the emotional yet dance driven spirit of her earlier material while blending in the sharper, more confident attitude heard on ‘So Sad, So Sexy’ and the shimmering influence of her 2019 Mark Ronson collaboration ‘Late Night Feelings’.
The emotional fallout begins to settle in quickly. ‘Famous Last Words’ carries a lush orchestral sadness as Lykke reflects on lessons that only came after years of chaos and late nights, confessing, “I had to crash and burn to tell the tale.” Then comes ‘Future Fear’, a delicate acoustic track with robotic textures that stares directly into anxiety and uncertainty with the chilling question, “I’m going to a dark place, do you need anything?” Meanwhile, ‘So Happy I Could Die’ glows like sunrise after a sleepless night, holding onto fleeting moments as she sings about “slipping through the hourglass”.
Throughout the album, Lykke Li vividly captures the beauty and wreckage of reckless nights with the vulnerability that has always defined her music. On ‘Sick Of Love’, she channels heartbreak into revenge, wanting to “make you beg for it” after rejection in a way that feels spiritually connected to Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’. One of the strongest moments arrives with ‘Knife In The Heart’, a track that fully embraces her desire to become the “rock god” and “fuck boy” she spoke about, firing back at anyone who tries to tear her down with the words “you can spit, you can walk on me” while delivering one of the catchiest songs she has created in years.
Closing track ‘Euphoria’ leaves behind the same bittersweet feeling that runs through the rest of the album. With sweeping strings, pulsing beats and emotional intensity, Lykke Li reminds listeners that nothing lasts forever as she sings, “Player play your song, waste the night away”. Like the fading energy of the perfect night out, ‘The Afterparty’ ends in a haze of beauty and uncertainty. If this truly is her farewell, she leaves with one final intoxicating statement, though it still feels like there could be another chapter waiting.
