ALBUM REVIEW: Veritas – Catalan!
The latin word Veritas is known as the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, and the namesake of the Roman goddess of truth, who represented rightness, justice, and a will to power. Whilst there are no goddesses in the genre-bending world of CATALAN! – the brainchild of Northern Ireland’s Ewan Friers (co-conspirator in post-hardcore outfit AXIS OF) – there is a search for the truth and an exploration of justice in the modern world on their debut Veritas.
Whilst CATALAN! are self-described protest-punks, their multifarious soundscapes melt down the meticulous barriers bands often pigeonhole themselves into. Ewan Friers‘ ability to create like a chameleon and craft a compellingly complex rogues gallery of songs often works in their favour, however at times can feel as if they’re setting light to their own structure, coming off as somewhat chaotic.
Opener Roussillon Serenade is a twisted tangle between late-noughties indie-pop and the late-ten’s post-punk revival, with it’s jingling jangly guitars and serendipitously synthy basslines colliding with rapid-fire socio-economic vocals. Elsewhere, Single Source is blissfully serene, basking in the sunlight of a shoegaze vibe, sitting somewhere comfortably between THE CHARLATANS and SLOWDIVE as lo-fi vocals vibrate along happy-go-lucky licks. Meanwhile, Alive is the identity crisis-in-waiting of the lovechild of LAURA JANE GRACE and BECK, who grew up listening to JANE’S ADDICTION and nothing else, blending their funk-punk alt-rock into a cocktail of choral chants. At times on Veritas, CATALAN! come across as one-part math-rock-era BIFFY CLYRO, one-part BODEGA, and one-part BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB. Simply put; Veritas is either a masterful mutation of infectious influences or a chaotic cluster of cackles – and there’s not a single point where you’re entirely sure it’s either.
It’s testament to Ewan Friers‘ tenacity to grip the bull by the horns and ride it wherever it goes that Veritas truly thrives. It’s an album built to be consumed not once, not twice, but multiple times. It is puppy-like in the way it commands and demands your attention at every moment. Whether it’s the clickety-clack of the cow-bell that sporadically spins into your eardrums or the witty one-liners that whirl around your brain, there’s something for everyone to unlock. It’s advantageous, as on first-listen, it can be almost off-puttingly difficult to truly comprehend the brevity and ambitiousness of CATALAN! and you may find yourself needing to approach it more than once for it to grow on you.
Whilst Veritas sails off into the genre-shifting stratosphere, it’s lyrical output is far more laser-focused, homing in on a particular stream of consciousness that Ewan’s years of travelling and time as a tour guide has taken up in his mind. This stream of consciousness, as topical now as it ever has been, asks the listener to consider how are we expected to approach the way we consume world news today, given that there’s such a range of it. Exploring this eclectically, CATALAN! tackle environmental change (Solastalgia), social media and technological dependency (Ungoogleable), and the blurring of the lines between local history and national politics (the entire album, really). Whilst there are many musicians finding their muse in these topics of late, Friers‘ ability to wrap his lyrical laments in witty one-liners sets them apart.
Spoken word segments are often the saviour of indie-folk troubadours and singer-songwriters rather than a protest-punk undergoing an identity crisis and yet when they’re implemented sparingly across Veritas, they’re surprisingly suited. At first you may assume the presence of spoken-word at times is simply upsetting the apple cart, however you’ll soon find faith in CATALAN! and fall for the lyrical prowess. It’s in the audaciously ambitious two-minute spoken-word tour-de-force that is GARE that Friers delivers his finest lines of the album, lamenting the commodification of local landmarks by social media-sensitive tourists: “We’ve come to blog your masterpieces, and from the bog our reach increases, it’s the only place with 3G signal, the influencers stinking vigil.”
On Veritas, CATALAN! introduce themselves as a compellingly comprehensive proposition that’ll have you spending hours trying to understand everything they’ve handed you on their protest-punk plate. At the same time, it’ll have you dancing around your kitchen basking in its brilliance.
Rating: 8/10
Veritas is out now via self-release.
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