According to the band, I’m the only person to have reviewed every single To Catch A Thief release. So I guess that puts me in a good position to state just how far this band have come in the last few years; from the Scottish toilet circuit to one of the best UK bands you’ve probably not yet heard. ‘Curious Tales and Fierce Beasts‘ is easily the band’s best work to date. It sounds huge, it’s catchy and heavy too. It has all the right parts of the puzzle – it’s the sound of a band finding their niche and nailing it. Everything’s spot on here. The dynamics, the vocals, the choruses, the melodies. It’s a band bringing their A-game to an unsuspecting audience.
My previous complaint of the band is that they’ve written and recorded one or two killer songs (‘We Are The Cancer’, for instance) and then filled an EP with a couple of tracks which aren’t quite as good. The good news is that ‘Curious…’ banishes this issue. Each song is as good as the last, meaning the first few chords that ring out are as good as the last. For those who haven’t heard the band before they’re kind of a cross between Taking Back Sunday and someone like Circa Survive. That’s a crude comparison, but they manage to mix the melodies and choruses with something a bit heavier and more intricate. I know it sounds like a comparison Ive made about lots of other bands, but somehow TCAT manage to do it while still sounding like themselves.
‘Curious Tales and Fierce Beasts‘ is a great record – whether or not they will get the mainstream success they deserve or not will probably come down to luck. But what this record does go to prove is that if you stick at it, writing, recording and playing, then over time you will get noticed eventually. To Catch A Thief are bright and breezy and I hope they can move onwards and upwards.