Album Review: Chris Catalyst - "Waiting In The Sky"

 

"God I miss David Bowie/He was my paperweight/And when he went back to Mars, man/I swear the stars looked very different that day" Thus sang Chris Catalyst on You Die At The End, one of the standout tracks from his debut solo album Life Is Often Brilliant a few years ago. So the arrival of a covers album of tracks from the Thin White Duke probably shouldn't come as a surprise from the Eureka Machines frontman and recently unmasked Ghost guitarist.

Now, let's be honest, attempting a whole set of songs by an artist as seminal as Bowie is fraught with danger - most of us know these songs inside out and the question is, where can you take them that they haven't necessarily been taken to before? So Chris really deserves a lot of credit for pulling off something special here - while these songs are most definitely identifiable as their original versions, he's added just enough of his own stamp on them to ensure that it doesn't descend into slavish fanboy copyism. So Breaking Glass and John I'm Only Dancing have a weird electronic undercurrent powering them with both sliding towards full on chaos towards then while Moonage Daydream and The Man Who Sold The World are given a 21st century gloss to become full on rock tour de forces.

Best of all is the haunting acoustic led rework of Ashes To Ashes which ironically enough sounds closer to the song it was originally supposed to be a sequel to, Space Oddity. It's run close by a thunderous closer of (what else?) Rock 'n' Roll Suicide while classics like Absolute Beginners and Heroes are handled with the appropriate respect.

You get the impression that Waiting In The Sky has very much been a labour of love for Catalyst and there's no doubt that the guy's acquitted himself well here. Definitely well worth a listen.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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