Tan lines in the shape of sandals are appearing on my feet, which means that summer is here to redden my pasty Irish skin.  It's important to have good tunes to go along with my aloe application, and Catcall's debut full length album The Warmest Place is doing nicely.  It's an unexpectedly confident debut, coming four years after her Anniversary EP.  Four years is a hefty time to allow your sound to gestate, which has seen Catcall transition from the more hip hop inspired Anniversary to a cleaner, synth driven sound.  This variety of stylistic influence keeps the album fresher than most synth pop albums I've heard lately, and has turned The Warmest Place into my go to soundtrack for summer.

The album opens with the title track, an a cappella intro that leads right into "August", a beefed up version of the standout track from Anniversary.  It's a stomping, catchy way to start the album, with deep sub bass permeating underneath a steady organ loop and layered synths.  The next track, "Satellites" switches gears to the more disco pop sound, with light plucky guitars and a tight four on the floor beat.  The fourth track "On My Own" switches gears yet again to a more shoegaze inspired sound, and already we've covered a lot of ground stylistically before the halfway point.  "Swimming Pool", a song previously released as a single and one of the album's standout tracks, features a downtempo 80's beat and a hell of a synth bassline. Normally this kind of inconsistency would be jarring, but the album maintains an aesthetic cohesiveness through Catcall's vocal delivery, a soft cadence mixed with the confident swagger of a less annoying M.I.A.

The latter half of the album has some treasures as well, like the electro house anthem "That Girl" and the bass arpeggiator driven "I Believe".  The album standout is "Shoulda Been", a dance number with a touch of melancholy and a chorus that you will find yourself singing in public, which out of context will make you look like broken hearted crackhead.  "Art Star" would've felt at home on a Talking Heads album with it's bouncy percussion and call and response vocals.  "Chicky Babe" and "Bad Move Baby" bring the album back to Catcall's hip hop leaning roots, bringing things nicely full circle from "August".  This album has one goal in mind: to get you to dance, and even the album's slower tracks drip with funkiness.  If you were to add this to your playlist as you drive out to the BuffaBLOG Beach Party this Saturday, you'd arrive in the proper mindset.

So how about that American tour, Catcall?