Catfish And The Bottlemen’s sound seems so fully formed that it’s difficult to reconcile yourself to the fact that ‘The Balcony’ really is their debut record.
Its 11 tracks are filled with choruses made for stadium sing-alongs, walls of crunching guitar and the kind of lyrics that will strike a chord with any teenager struggling with unrequited love or small-town boredom.
While there’s nothing particularly original or ground-breaking about this debut, CATB is a band that’s mastered the art of writing tunes that connect with an audience, and at a time when commercial rock is, apparently, at a particularly low ebb, that could serve them very well.
6/10
Words: Joe Rivers
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Stream ‘The Balcony’ in full via Deezer, below…
