Cockahoop - Cerys Matthews FLAC

Formerly down in the dumps, having purportedly lost her self-confidence and media-friendly effervescence in a thick fog of anxiety, exhaustion, booze and fags, the ebulliently titled Cock-A-Hoop finds the former pretty face of Catatonia getting folksy with the musical natives in Nashville and bouncing back from the ignominy of rehab with a new, rootsy agenda, a clear head and not a remaining care in the world. She's married, she's going to have a baby and Cock-A-Hoop is a record that shines with the good-time aura of new-found contentment, so much so that the jovial banjo-plucking delirium of "Louisiana" wouldn't sound out of place as incidental music in The Little House on the Prairie. Boozy former demons are beaten to death with acoustic instruments--"Chardonnay", a song penned (but never recorded) by Roger Cook and former Strangler Hugh Cornwell, seems to jolly along in summer straw boaters with its clockwork banjo and village band woodwind--but the songs' appreciative narrative disguises contempt for her former dependencies.
Along with the ragged vocal swagger of growly slacker-folk number "The Good in Goodbye"--on which Matthews spits-feathers and approximates the inebriated slurring of a female Shane Macgowan--it succeeds in sticking two fingers up in the general direction of the past. In light of which, Catatonia fans with inflexible musical tastes will have to draw crumbs of comfort from potential single "Only a Fool" or else learn to tailor their preferences towards a Welsh language translation of a 19th-century American Methodist hymn ("Arglwydd Dyma Fi" has gorgeously shimmering pedal steel guitar), a Cajun ode to feeling like a castrated chicken or the Bahamian spiritual "All My Trials", as previously performed by the likes of Roger McGuinn, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. That said, longstanding fans will find Matthews' wayward vocal mewing as endearingly crackers as ever. And it would take a rigid cynic of the highest order not to admit that Cock-A-Hoop is a very welcome change of scenery. --Kevin Maidment

BBC Review
It's been nearly two years since the demise of Catatonia, and despite her fairly low profile since, there never seemed to be any question that Cerys Matthews would resurface at some point in the future.
What is surprising is that the former indie diva has chosen to take a trip deep into Americana, recording a batch of folk-influenced tunes, and nary a rock lick in sight. That's not to say she doesn't belt it out now and again, coming over like an 80-a-day Maria Muldaur on "If You're Lookin' For Love", and clearly enjoying the three-sheets-to-the-wind bawl of "La Bague".

The sound of Cockahoop no doubt owes much to Bob Dylan steel guitarist Bucky Baxter who took on production duties as well as a stellar (as far as the alt.country scene goes anyway) cast of support players. Guitarist Richard Bennett (Travis Tritt, Emmylou Harris), drummer Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo/Wilco), and multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke form a pretty flawless backing group.

While much of the album is made up of cover versions, Cerys own contributions, particularly "Only AFool" and "Caught In The Middle", really stand out, mixing up folk and pop with simplicity and directness. The problem comes with her voice.

It's unclear whether Cerys was aiming for Gillian Welch bitter-sweetness or the raucous melancholy of Tom Waits; what is clear is that she achieves neither. Her idiosyncratic rasp sits uncomfortably in a genre that is buzzing with exceptional voices.

That's not to say that Cockahoop is without its saving graces, there's the affecting opener "Chardonnay", a song written by Roger Cook (who penned "Talking In Your Sleep" for Crystal Gayle), while her version of the Handsome Family's "Weightless Again" possesses a disconcerting beauty.

But elsewhere Matthews' vocals lack the subtlety and charisma to really make her material come alive, betraying her own inexperience as a singer in a genre where, to be fair, she's chosen to jump in at the deep end. It's not that she hasn't got it in her. It's just going to take a few albums until she matures into a fully-fledged country singer. --Derryck Strachan