Catatonia Equally Cursed & Blessed Lyrics

If International Velvet was Catatonia exploding into the public sights, Equally Cursed and Blessed is the sound of a band realizing what's happened. As such, it is a much more personal album. The opening track "Dead from the Waist Down" provides a tour-bus perspective on America while "Bulimic Beats" is glassily fragile and backs Cerys Matthews's voice with a harp. Catatonia continue to stomp about while displaying wit, particularly with "Londinium" ("I come alive outside the M25") and the wonderful, Clash-influenced "Storm the Palace," an anti-Royalist song suggesting what we can do with the Queen and her house ("Turn it into a bar, let them work in Spar"). Finally, on "She's a Millionaire," Matthews delivers the best pronunciation of the word "gynecology" ever recorded. --Emma Johnston