Butterfly Catchers - Review
Butterfly Catchers
Doin’ Time (Self Released EP)
The songs on this record are lovingly crafted, beautifully arranged and played and sound consumately professional.
However there is something missing which makes it hard for Butterfly Catchers to really engage me. Their sound is intimate
and earthy, basically acoustic pop with some touches of strings and laidback percussion. The eponymous track, ‘Doin Time’,
is the best, but the band never really get out of first gear. Rather than delicate, lush and compelling, they come across as a
bit bland, like unplugged by numbers. Like an even more laid back Corrs. Vocalist, Melissa, has a lovely voice, but the lyrics are a bit pedestrian and add nothing new to her time honoured tales of lost love. The band won a Birmingham Music Award for ‘Best Unplugged
Act’ so they must be doing something right, but they don’t do it for me.
Adam Moffatt
Tags: butterfly catchers
August 4th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
do you agree with this review? Have a listen for yourself on:
http://www.myspace.com/butterflycatchers
and post your own comments……..
August 4th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
don’t worry, BC’s many people love your chilled out vibe and just remember that great quote from the film ‘Ratatouille’:
“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”
August 4th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
seems like the reviewer has borrowed a few lines from an overplay review from 2006, a bit like writing reviews by numbers…..
01-03-2006
Butterfly Catchers - Review (Overplay, March 2006)
Breitling watches, Versace suits, toasted sandwiches – they’re all hand-made, but none of them are LOVINGLY CRAFTED and sculpted with as much TLC as the Butterfly Catchers’ refined folk melodies.
From the off, this ep delivers all the luxurious comfort of a pair of velvet underpants. “Doin’ Time” is instantly seductive with LUSH strings, acoustic stylings and a few angelic touches from vocalist Melissa that make the whole thing sound like a sweeter version of The Sundays.
But it’s the closing tune, “The Game” that raises the stakes and hints at the kind of more experimental left turns the band could explore over the length of a full album. DELICATE guitars and understated strings create an atmosphere of crystalline beauty as Melissa conjures up “another place and time”.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I think it’s a pretty good review, just needs a little editing:
The songs on this record are lovingly crafted, beautifully arranged and played and sound consumately professional. Their sound is intimate and earthy, basically acoustic pop with some touches of strings and laidback percussion.
The eponymous track, ‘Doin Time’, is the best. Like an even more laid back Corrs. Vocalist, Melissa, has a lovely voice that adds to her time honoured tales of lost love.
The band won a Birmingham Music Award for ‘Best UnpluggedAct’ so they must be doing something right.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
The butterfly catchers would like us to point out the CD is not actually an EP and nor has it been released, it was in fact a demo CD we used to sell at a one off live charity gig at the Sound Bar in Birmingham
August 5th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Hi, I’m the writer of this review. I resisted commenting until now but when I got a sarcastic message from the band on my personal myspace I thought I had to say a couple of things.
Firstly, I apologise for the minor mistakes on calling the CD a self released EP, which I’ve been told it isn’t. I’m pleased that my review has sparked a bit of debate, and pleased that BC’s fans have come out to defend them against this no good hack’s opinion. Fair play to them.
But,I’m dissappointed in the very defensive and childish response from the band to what is at the end of the day, just my opinion. I could understand if I had written an NME style personal attack against the CD but my review was qualified, basically saying that BC do what they do well, but I don’t like it. I find it particularly bizarre that the band complained that I had not been asked to review the album. I wasn’t aware that reviewers had to ask bands before they gave them some exposure with a review (good or bad). Maybe I should have asked before listening to it, then they could have told me what to write.
I’m not going to get into dissecting previous comments, its very easy to do that. But it shows that BC have serious insecurities about how good they are when they get this hot under the collar about one bad review, and go to such lengths as finding me on myspace and rifling through their archive of reviews to construct a carefully formed counter argument. Please do like your music and chill out. Over and out.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
The review ain’t three bad, and after a few years of being together 1 mediocre review is pretty good
I’m more stunned about how wide I can open my mouth. Seriously, never mind catchin’ butterflies, I’m surprised that sparrows don’t try and nest in there!