By Deuce

It’s truly marvelous what a difference the right hook makes. It can ground the listener, send him or her off flying, center the song, and prove the vital difference between an unforgettable cut and one of the ones.

Just don’t tell that to Bomb Cats. These four gents—with a distinctive penchant for wearing black, which few people have ever gone wrong doing, especially when it comes to laying down music—already know this fact. In fact, they’re well versed in it, heavily immersed in it at times, and practitioners of the very art of this philosophy.

Sounds too good to be true? Then just crack open the gang’s latest project, the 5-cut Extended Player Third Street Melody. The title is more than appropriate as, on the song of the same name, which just so happens to set off the collection, you’re greeted—perhaps about a minute into the tune—with the most scrumptious of choruses that definitely serves as the focal point.

Somewhat similar to the hook on REM’s smash “It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, yet a step or two slower, the refrain on this tune is when the sun comes out on a cloudy day. Everything, including the frenetic pace of the work, the driving, driving guitars, the bass just underneath them, and the whirlwind of activity of the drumming, suddenly clicks at that point. The song transforms into an anthem, something everyone will want to sing along to, and the rest of the parts of the numbers just baited steps away from hearing it again, and again, and again (if you play it like one reviewer did).

However, the quartet of James Williams on the lead, Chris Farrell on the guitar and vocals, Russ Webster on the bass and vocals, and Colin Nulty on the drums, reprises this capability to present an explosion of instrumentation and voices on other tunes, as well. As a matter of fact they do so on “Hypocrites”. Again, the energy lifts as the band gets to the chorus, discernibly brightening up a number that’s noteworthy for its vocals. It’s unclear as to whether Webster or Farrell is on the mic for this one, but whoever it is, his voice cuts through the sheer vociferousness of the band’s work on the duration of this project, which is one of its hallmarks.