Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys - Albion Doo-Wah

Polydor Records

Who are Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys? Very few people know or care. I first stumbled upon them while bin diving not at a record store but though somebody else's collection. Luckily, the album didn't come home with me, but a lingering interest stuck around in relation to the oddly-named New York rockers. The interest wasn't worth it.

Of the ten tracks on 1970's "Albion Doo-Wah", only two warrant any listenings beyond the initial: "Last Go Round" and "Strike a Match and Light Another".

"Strike a Match" is, predictably, the token song that establishes the group as aligned with the pro-marijuana interests of the youth, something that was far more radical a statement when the song was released. The only redeeming quality this overdone country jamboree has going for it is that it's slightly more entertaining then most other cuts on the record.

"Last Go Round" is easily the best song on the album, a title awarded to it not due to the group's originality when creating it but their ability to perfectly imitate the styles of others. It is probably the best mock-up of the techniques of The Band, Van Morrison and various Laurel Canyon sceners you could find at the time.

Besides those two choice cuts, "Albion Doo-Wah" is the typical middle-of-the-road album. The kind of filler that will sit unbought in the bins of a record store for years. The opener, "Riff Raff", is notable only for being poorly mixed, "Rise Above It" for the last-minute religiously-influenced social commentary that nobody came here for, and "I Must Be Dreaming" for the performance where the singer sounds like he's getting over a particularly nasty cold. The only thing Cat Mother have going for them is their unique harmony vocalizations, a fact that hasn't yet occurred to them.

Rating: 3/5