Equally Cursed & Blessed [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
1999 album from the highly acclaimed Welsh indie pop/ rock outfit. 11 tracks, including the single 'Dead From The Waist Down'.

Tracks:

Dead From The Waist Down
Londinium
Post Script
She's A Millionaire
Storm The Palace
Karaoke Queen
Bulimic Beats
Valerian
Shoot The Messenger
Nothing Hurts
Dazed, Beautiful And Bruised
Road Rage
Mulder And Scully

Amazon.com

If International Velvet was Catatonia exploding into the public sights, Equally Cursed and Blessed is the sound of a band realizing what's happened. As such, it is a much more personal album. The opening track "Dead from the Waist Down" provides a tour-bus perspective on America while "Bulimic Beats" is glassily fragile and backs Cerys Matthews's voice with a harp. Catatonia continue to stomp about while displaying wit, particularly with "Londinium" ("I come alive outside the M25") and the wonderful, Clash-influenced "Storm the Palace," an anti-Royalist song suggesting what we can do with the Queen and her house ("Turn it into a bar, let them work in Spar"). Finally, on "She's a Millionaire," Matthews delivers the best pronunciation of the word "gynecology" ever recorded. --Emma Johnston

Customer Reviews:

I love this album, I love Cerys, I love the Lyrics........2002-10-17

Let's state the obvious. Cerys Matthews is a total babe. See cover.

OK but can she sing?

Well, yes, but sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes she does. She's a bit like Bjork this way. I'm not sure it's singing and I'm not sure it's good, but I sure as hell like it.

The song opens with "dead from the waist down" a lounge-act song about the nihilism of our consumer age. It's so lovely it's the kind of beautiful music that goes with a horrible disaster.

But the indictment doesn't stop there, Cery's interesting voice indicts London for the cesspool it is (interesting as a comparison point in Tool's AEnima). Cursing the 'black cabs' in 'the neon disease' you can feel the Welsh angst about Londinium.

Tracks 3 and 4 mark a waning in my interest, a complaint about using the church to fix mental problems and something about rich chicks. However, the writers of the catatonia lyrics have a gift for clever lyrics so these are even fairly interesting (D.I.Y gynecology?).

Storm the palace again attacks the monarchy. Rinse. Repeat.

We return to the melodic dissociation of track one with bulemic beats and valerian. valerian is great -- it has this great craggy oceanside vista on the english coast feel about it. I love these two tracks. 'Nothing Hurts' a little later falls into this same genre.

Shoot the messenger isn't al that great.

But then comes dazed beautiful and bruised. god what a song and Cerys totaly belts it out. She's putting her all into this song. Something about being a survivor and being beautiful for it. This is the song for everyone who wants someone out there and is not willing to settle. Man that's totally inspiring.

Now on my CD I also got Road Rage and Mulder & Scully which were released on the 97 "International Velvet" record. They're pooppy and accessible tunes -- and mighty fine at that.

With the demise of Catatonia this year, I believe this record (or IV) will stand as their crowninng achievement.

Good Album.......2002-04-08

Catatonia is a great band and Equally Blessed and Cursed is in my opinion their greatest album to date. Cerys Matthews has such an incredibly unique voice. Best tracks on this cd are "Dazed, Beautiful and Bruised," the catchy sing-a-long song "Road Rage" and my favorite, the sultry "Shoot the Messenger". Over all the album is just better than average but I still recommend it.

Great follow-up to 'International Velvet'.......2002-01-30

Most people first heard of Catatonia when they released previous album 'International Velvet'. This, their third album and follow-up to their breakthrough album was anticipated heavily. In many ways this is a more accomplised album, with witty lyrics and a variety of style.

It begins with the single 'Dead From The Waist Down', a rare smoothly seductive tune sung by the ever-gorgeous vocals of Cerys Matthews. This is followed by a little swipe at city life in 'Londinium', with nice little details thrown in such as the M25. In fact, the general feel of several songs on the album seems to be an affectionate, lighthearted swipe at everything varying from the monarchy (the infectious 'Storm The Palace') to millionairesses ('She's A Millionaire'). In this it can often raise a smile, yet it is also an album that is quite capable of a softer undertone. This is particularly evident on the slow number, backed by harps, 'Bulimic Beats'. In many ways its in a similar style to 'Don't Need The Sunshine' from 'International Velvet' or 'Godspeed' from 'Papers, Scissors, Stone', but is definitely a surprise from a band normally famed for its loud and enjoyable vocals.

There's not one filler track here and although it's perhaps not as good as Catatonia's other albums, this is merely because the others are all so excellent. 'Equally Cursed And Blessed' is a real gem.

A Pretty good L.P........2001-09-26

Stand out tracks are Londinium, Equally Cursed And Blessed, and Mulder And Scully, the strengths of Catatonia are manifold. The lyricsl quality is not only high, it's different, so in the above three examples, we have songs about city life, Princess Diana, and peculiar stuff happening, which make a nice change from love songs. The best thing about this group however has to be the melodies, which are always strong, bear repeated listening, and maintain the quality throughout the album. The vocal oddities of Cerys Matthews just make it that bit more interesting.

What A Voice.......2000-12-16

Cerys Matthews has one of the most distintive voices that i have ever heard. Equally Cursed and Blessed is Catatonias third studio album and their most accomplised to date. Containing the Uk hit singles, Road Rage, Dead From The Waist Down, Mulder And Scully, Londinium and Karaoke queen its easy to see why Catatonia has amased a huge fan base in such a small time. Lets hope that on the next album Cerys can keep up the good work and write good songs as singable as Road Rage