[Review] "Neon" by Cats On Trees: a new album that feels good!

After a colossal success in 2013 with their first eponymous album certified double platinum (200,000 copies sold), Cats on trees is back with a brand new opus, called Neon.

A new album in line with the first, but resolutely more mature

They took their time, and they were right. More than 4 years after the success of Sirens Call or Jimmy, Nina Goern and Yohan Hennequin are back on the airwaves with a resolutely pop album, endowed with a great modernity. It is the fruit of their collaboration with the co-director of their first work, Pierre Rougean. Together, they shape 10 perfectly accomplished songs, revealing a more mature approach, for 35 minutes of spellbinding. Melodies with organic assonances, sometimes sprinkled with a touch of synthetic, driven by the inevitable piano that remains the red thread of this album. Cats on trees is also surrounded by Rémy Galichet (Yael Naim, Vincent Delerm) for the strings, Angelo Foley (Christine & The Queens, Eddy de Pretto) who signs the arrangements, and the Belgian producer Elvin Galland.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgYQV7Qh0Eo/?hl=fr&taken-by=catsontrees

A beautifully highlighted voice

They offer a first result by offering Keep on dancing, an effective and intoxicating first disco single, which reflects the color of the album. It is also on this song that they open the album, before singing Lion, a ballad filled with sweetness and grafted harmonies, which opens on a piano and decreases to the notes of strings. Cats on trees is committed to English words that sew and harmonize the album with logic and accuracy. The more assertive and jerky rhythm emerges with If you feel or Bad boy which reveals a danceable pop inspiring us the journey. A title that dresses up as our favorite song. 

We also remember the very assertive and highlighted voice of Nina in Mama said. A melody stuffed with joviality conducive to a smile on our lips. To believe that we are perfectly linked to the text since the singer declaims "Mama said to me have a happy smile". Universal messages are delivered around preserving the future while focusing on the present.

Then comes Black Lips, a supra-contemporary title, slightly caressed by auto-tune. But the surprise of this album is called Blue. We rediscover the singer who declaims fine flights juggling between sensuality and subtlety. The title Smile is delightfully soaring, orchestrated by a crazy languorous energy, just like Tikiway which gives off a melody that remains in mind from the first listening.

For its second opus, Cats on trees delivers new melodies carefully thought out and accomplished, which reveal a more present maturity. From resolutely organic tips to synthetic notes, the duo combines different sounds with English words for a successful result. 

7/10

Listen: Bad Boy, Blue, Keep on dancing

Note that Nina and Yohan will travel the roads of France from April 13, 2018, passing by La Cigale in Paris on May 16 and by many festivals next summer.