Cities (The Cat Empire album)

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Cities
Studio album by The Cat Empire
Released 2006
Recorded 2005-2006
Genre Jazz/Rock/Hip hop
Length 45:32
Label EMI/Virgin
Producer Felix Riebl & The Cat Empire
The Cat Empire chronology
Two Shoes
(2005)		 Cities
(2006)		 Two Shoes (North American Edition)
(2006)

Cities is an album by The Cat Empire released on the 1 April 2006. A strictly limited release, 10,000 individually-numbered copies have been made in digipak format.

On October 29th, the album won an ARIA Music Award under the catogory: Awards for Fine Arts, Best World Music Album.

The album was recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Richmond, Melbourne, Australia.

As well as The Cat Empire and the Empire Horns (Ross Irwin, Kieran Conrau and Carlo Barbaro), this project features many guest artists, including:

  • Alyssa Conrau (violin),
  • Kirsty Conrau (cello),
  • Novak Conrad (guitar),
  • Julie O'Hara (vocals in 'Song for Elias', 'Motion', 'Song for the Day', 'Side to Side', 'Waltz' and 'Luck Song'),
  • Nina Ferro (vocals, in 'Side to Side', 'Song for the Day' and 'Waltz'),
  • Greg Sheehan (talking tamb in 'Waltz'),
  • Bobby Singh (tablas in 'Cities' and 'Boogaloo'), and
  • Kumar Shome (sitar in 'Cities') .

The album as a whole has a greater diversity in terms of style than seen on previous albums - Song for the Day, Luck Song, and Know Your Name have a prominent reggae feel, while Miss Soul, Side to Side, Boogaloo and Motion show classic R&B and Soul influences. There's even some polka thrown into the mix in the form of Waltz, and Anymore takes on a more traditional latin jazz style. There are also guitar parts in many tracks, an instrument which until now has been a rare occurrence in The Cat Empire's music.

Two songs (Siente and Song for the Day) are from early in the band's career, and haven't seen a mainstream studio release until now. (Siente was previously known as The Conspiracy, was sung by Harry Angus, and had different lyrics; however the backing chords, bridge, and horn/keyboard riffs are clearly recognizable.)

The album is still available for purchase through iTunes as a digital download.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Cities" – 3:23
  2. "Boogaloo" – 3:30
  3. "Siente" – 2:43
  4. "Motion" – 3:43
  5. "Song for the Day" – 3:47
  6. "Know your Name" – 3:21
  7. "Song for Elias" – 4:32
  8. "Jungle (instrumental)" – 2:12
  9. "Down at the 303" – 2:40
  10. "Side to Side" – 3:53
  11. "Waltz" – 4:24
  12. "Luck Song" – 3:30
  13. "Anymore" – 3:52
  14. "Miss Soul" - 4:35 (iTunes exclusive track)

When "Miss Soul" was first available for download, it was titled 'Feline'.

This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.

[edit] Charts

Chart Position
Australasian Album Chart 6
Australian ARIA Album Chart 11
Australian ARIA Album Chart
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
Chart Position
11
17
22
26
45
50

[edit] Sources

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The Cat Empire
Ollie McGill · Ryan Monro · Felix Riebl · Harry James Angus · Will Hull Brown · Jamshid Khadiwhala
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Singles
"Hello" · "Days Like These" · "The Chariot" · "One Four Five" · "Sly" · "The Car Song" · "Two Shoes" · "No Longer There"
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