Catbite – Nice One | Album Review
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I’m not sure if you’ve heard the news, but ska is back. Like, back back. Well, it’s not like it ever left, but after a year and change of staying in our homes, perhaps people have decided to not be so self-serious. It’s easy to point to this ska revival as being akin to the reappraisal of nü metal, but I don’t think they quite reflect one another. The return of nü metal has more to do with it being accepted as smarter than people had initially given it credit for. The staying power and swathes of influence of bands like Deftones and Slipknot finds the genre en vogue, with artists like Rina Sawayama and Loathe putting new spins on its sonic touchstones. This is not the case with ska.
Musically, this current moment in ska-story feels less like a new wave and more of a return to the sunburnt skate punk of third wave ska that invaded the mainstream in the ’90s. What makes ska great is that it overflows with exuberance, which bands like No Doubt and Rancid understood. They took the infectious choruses of The Specials and Oingo Boingo and morphed them into anthems by adding heavy power chords and gang vocals that every kid in the crowd could shout. Somewhere along the way, people grew tired of this bountiful joy and cast ska into the gutter. A new generation of musicians found ska lying there helpless and have dusted it off so that it may thrive once again.
Catbite is one of these savior bands. The Philadelphia quartet’s sophomore LP, Nice One, is a gleeful slice of ska-punk that hearkens back to the genre’s heyday. The album is a strong piece of power pop, and its sole purpose is to have fun. Opening track “Asinine Aesthetic” catapults Nice One into your ears as frontperson Brittany Luna belts about posers over a chorus of “ooo-sha-la-la’s” and rapid guitar upstrokes. Lead single, “Call Your Bluff” is an endlessly hummable ripper that rails against wack posturing. Meanwhile, “Not Ur Baby” introduces a touch of melancholy without sacrificing Catbite’s ability to craft large radio-friendly hooks.
Nice One is an example of a band understanding their strengths and leaning all the way into them. What sets Catbite apart from so many groups, regardless of genre, is that they have a powerhouse singer in Brittany Luna. They know the rules; when you have a talent like Luna fronting the band, you gotta make big songs that get the crowd moving. Along with slick production courtesy of Davey Warsop, Catbite keep things simple in order to support Luna’s spectacular performances. While Catbite’s self-titled debut features such moments, the album comes across as a group still learning who they are. Nice One does not include its predecessor’s vibeier jams like “Already Gone,” instead, the songs on the group’s sophomore album get straight to the point, even on the mid-tempo rocksteady tracks, “Stay” and “Bad Influence.”
Like many power pop albums, Nice One falls prey to frontloading the tracklist. The songs on the back half are by no means lackluster, but when the first half is wall-to-wall bangers, it can be hard as a listener to keep up with the band’s pace. Perhaps the album could be better served with a more even distribution so as to give each song its due, but nailing the perfect song order might be one of the hardest things to do in music. Thankfully, Nice One is a relatively brief album, so any lull that might be experienced is momentary.
With Nice One, Catbite have proven themselves worthy of being amongst the new standard-bearers of ska. Like their contemporaries Ska Tune Network, We Are the Union, and Bad Operation, Catbite are shifting the perception of ska away from the unsavory white dude aesthetic that partially maligned the genre in the ‘90s, instead centering it on the joy that the music brings. Today’s ska is a safe space where anyone, regardless of race, sexual preference, and gender identity, can express themselves and skank their hearts out. Perhaps the demand for inclusion alone is enough for the current ska scene to be considered a fourth wave? Honestly, I’m not sure, and the more time I spend thinking about criteria is time away from enjoying the music. With Nice One, Catbite aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel; rather they are putting new air in the tires so the car can keep on cruising.
Connor lives in San Francisco with his partner and their cat, Toni. Connor has an MFA in creative writing and is working toward becoming a community college professor. When he isn’t listening to music or writing about killer riffs, Connor is obsessing over coffee and sandwiches.
