Catatonia Biography And Top 10 Songs
I only really got into Catatonia after the release of International Velvet and hadn't really heard much of them before that. Since that release I went out and bought their previous albums and have bought their subsequent albums too. I think what really attracted me to them initially was Cerys Matthews voice and looks. I don't know of that many Welsh, female singers but I liked the sound of her voice the first time I heard it, and looks wise she is very beautiful. I got into a slight bit of trouble at the time because I went out and got a poster of Cerys which I had on my bedroom wall.
Catatonia formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1992 and consist of Cerys Matthews, Paul Jones, Mark Roberts, Owen Powell and Aled Richards. Other members have been Kris Jenkins, Dafydd Ieuan and Clancy Pegg. They were originally called Sweet Catatonia after believing the term to mean a sense of extreme pleasure and sleep and then dropped the Sweet when they realised Catatonia is a symptom of mental disorders.
Their debut album titled The Sublime Magic of Catatonia was released in 1995 and is a compilation album of some of their early songs before being signed to any label and is similar to the album Way Beyond Blue which is considered more their debut album and contains most of their early singles and hits such as Bleed, For Tinkerbell, Whale and You've Got A Lot To Answer For.
When International Velvet was released in 1998 it was nominated for a Mercury Award and was their first #1 album in the UK and turned 3x Platinum in the US. The album boasts some of their most famous songs like Road Rage, I Am The Mob based on the movie The Godfather and Mulder And Scully which is named after the main characters of the hit TV show The X-Files.
Catatonia continued to rise in popularity due to the 1999 release of Equally Cursed And Blessed which also was #1 in the UK charts and turned Platinum in the US. The songs Dead From The Waist Down, Karaoke Queen and Dazed Beautiful And Bruised being massive hits in the UK.
Paper Scissors Stone named after the game Rock, Paper, Scissors was released in 2001 and was to be their final studio album. The single Stone By Stone was the only single released from the album and in the video for the song, the ending shows the band abandoning their instruments and walking away. Soon after, this turned out to be reality as they split later in the year. The album was dedicated to a friend Barrie Cawley who was unfortunately killed during a road accident the previous year (2000).
Since the split Cerys Matthews has pursued her own solo career, releasing her solo album Cockahoop in 2003. She also released her new album titled Aeroplane in 2007.
My Top 10 Catatonia Songs are:
01. Gyda Gwen
02. Dazed Beautiful And Bruised
03. Beautiful Loser
04. She's a Millionaire
05. I am the Mob
06. Way Beyond Blue
07. My Selfish Gene
08. Is Everybody Here On Drugs?
09. You've Got A Lot To Answer For
10. Storm the Palace