Cat Piggott - Pretty Red Shoes

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A very good album

I was genuinely surprised by how good this album is.  I bought it as a blind punt after enjoying one of Cat Piggott's reviews on Amazon and then going to her website to hear a couple of samples.  I expected it to be a more of a gesture toward supporting an artist rather than an album I'd want to play repeatedly but I was quite wrong – there's real quality here and it's already repaid repeated listening.

Cat Piggot has a very nice, slightly husky and soulful voice, and her band and her own guitar work are very good.  The overall sound is great and a lot of care, skill and thought has gone into making this album.

The real test is the material, of course – and it's good.  The songs are very well crafted, Piggott writes a good tune, the arrangements and production are varied and intelligent and the lyrics are far, far better than I'd have expected.  There's a real variety of songs here, from love songs and laments of a broken heart to a very witty expression of rage at a mosquito.  There's even a song about lonely dog finding a home which could have been the sort of sentimental nonsense I loathe, but it's actually very well done and, to my surprise, rather affecting.  There's a sequence of three really fine, different songs which sums up the album's quality for me: Down To The River is a beautifully harmonised gospel-ish song (possibly a nod to Alison Krauss's Down To The River To Pray), Death And Taxes is a minor-key, more rocky number with some very nice guitar work, and Where Are You is a sultry blues which is very, very well sung.  There's plenty more good stuff here, too.

I think Pretty Red Shoes has a lot more quality songwriting and sincerity of performance than some releases on more major labels recently.  It may not be world-changing masterpiece or an enduring Classic Album, but it's a really good listen.  These are good songs, well performed and well produced.  What more could you want?  Warmly recommended – I think, like me, you might be surprised at how good this is.