Kangaroos, Boomerangs, Foster’s and crocodile hunters, Australia has some of the coolest ethnic clich’s on the planet. It also happens to be home to a super-cool and lush indie music machine. Melbourne in particular has churned out Coachella performers Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts. With such acts recently stamping their Aussie flair in the California desert, The Cat Empire has followed suit by blazing a very distinct musical path all their own. Arguably Melbourne’s most successful indie group, The Cat Empire has gone double platinum on two separate albums (in Australia). Riding a wave of domestic success they have released their U.S. debut album So Many Nights.

An extravagant piece of work, So Many Nights fuses jazz, funk, rock and Latin, sometimes all in one song. This genre cluster-fuck is manifested, literally, in the song ‘Fishies.’ Trumpets, piano, an assortment of strings, percussion and even a tinge of turntables bombard this track like a swarm of rabid locust. Alas, most of the songs in this fifteen track album follow suit. And within ten minutes it all becomes a bit too much. Even when trying to keep it simple, with slow melodic tunes like ‘No Longer There’ a cattle-heard of instruments crowds the song. While the musicianship is top notch throughout the entire album, it sadly gets stifled with the overdone production. Grandiose and not in a good way, So Many Nights would make a great sound track for the straight to DVD sequel of Swingers. -Or maybe not.

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