Album Review: To Catch a Thief - Curious Tales and Fierce Beasts

To Catch a Thief are amazing! It’s as simple as that! Hailing out of rainy Scotland, this foursome know exactly how to write an emotional punk song and ‘Curious Tales and Fierce Beasts’ is simply further evidence to prove the point!

After reasonable success following the ‘You Eyes Will Burn’ EP the band have taken things to the next stage on this latest effort with bigger rifts, tighter beats and stronger vocals. They’ve really nailed their sound here and run with it.

I will warn you though, To Catch a Thief do exactly the same ‘emotional pop punk with heavy guitars’ as a million other bands out there, the difference is that they do it well, in fact they do it better than most.

Opening song ‘Honest’ smashes you in the face from the first second, it’s a high tempo affair riddled with piercing screams and emotionally strained vocals…To Catch a Thief want you to sit up and take notice, from previous stuff I’ve heard from this band it seems that they have really pushed onto the next level in every possible way.

Many bands seem to start with a bang and then fizzle out from there, not this band, the EP continues as it starts, song after song is of such a high quality it leaves you frantically tearing yourself between moving onto the next track or simply skipping back to listen to what you’ve just heard again.

‘The Hunted’ shows the bands versatility with some nice atmospheric effects adding something extra to the mix. The song really showcases the bands ability to play with passion and aggression while at the same time continuing to be catchy and addictive! They sound absolutely massive here and the production throughout is excellent.

On ‘Not Guilty’, singer Ali Lane offers the line “this is the best thing I have ever done for myself’, now he isn’t talking about his band’s latest EP but he might as well be!

Final song ‘1000 miles’ begins with a whispered vocal line before an epic drum beat comes into the mix…followed by the whole band joining the fun. Ali Lane really shows his impressive vocal range on this song and really shows what he can do. The track ends by going quiet just as it started, the difference being the vocal lines are actually quite haunting!

There isn’t a poor song on here and I would even go as far as saying that there isn’t a poor part to any song either. To Catch a Thief really are playing at the top of their game with this release, they have shown that they were building up to something really special with previous releases and I hope that this isn’t the tip of the iceberg. If they can carry on this level of progression then I think they could really be a band to watch out for in 2011.

I love this band, and I think most of you will too…don’t bother buying the latest Senses Fail, Taking Back Sunday or Circa Survive albums, get this instead. A label really needs to pick them up soon and when that happens I think they could really go places and I honestly hope they do.

5/5

'Curious Tales and Fierce Beasts' by To Catch A Thief is available now on Colour Records

To Catch A Thief on MySpace
To Catch A Thief on Twitter

Matt Buck