Cat’s Eyes feels like the beginning of something promising.
Somewhat overshadowed by the justifiable brouhaha surrounding Skying, the Horrors’ third album, this self-titled debut from Cat’s Eyes has proved to be one of the enduring treats of the year since it unassumingly slunk out several months 
ago. The duo, made up of Horrors frontman Faris Badwan and bona fide Canadian opera singer Rachel Zeffira, mine the rich vein of musical possibilities that come from a healthy second-hand record shop habit, and in particular the golden age of girl groups like the Shangri-Las and the Crystals.
There are closer-to-home touches – the foreboding presence of My Bloody Valentine, the pop classicism of the Beach Boys, Burt Bacharach and Joe Meek, and the skewed romantic dueting of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra and their ilk. However, it’s hard to go past the influence of producers like Shadow Morton and Phil Spector at their schlocky best when songs like Bandit, The Best Person I Know and I’m Not Stupid unravel themselves over heartbeat rhythmic pulses and sumptuous arrangements.
As with the faux-soul stylings of Amy Winehouse producer Mark Ronson, this is an immaculately achieved, very knowing operation. But where it can feel as if Ronson is clinically reanimating musical cadavers, there is a freshness and vitality to Cat’s Eyes that suggests it may have longer legs and a far greater worth. Zeffira doesn’t feel the need to draw on her classically trained chops, but instead settles convincingly into fragile lonely-girl-mode, floating – Julee Cruise-like – over the deceptively simple yet sublime song structures. Badwan is for the main part an admirable foil, amping up the 60s action on Face in the Crowd and the eponymous opener, pulling a vocal personal best on the unmitigatedly moody The Lull and only dropping the baton on Sooner Or Later, where the retro stylings become un-necessarily camp and things begin to head towards the Addams Family.
For all its melodramatic charm and spooky tones, possibly the most encouraging thing about is it doesn’t feel like an indulgent side project or a ticked box for the CV, but rather the beginning of something that could develop just as promisingly as Badwan’s day job has done. Having composed, arranged and produced the entire album themselves, the pair undoubtedly could fall back on a career in film-scoring should their other options not work out.
CAT’S EYES, Cat’s Eyes (Shock)