As they prepare for the release of their upcoming 26-track record “Starlight’s Castaways”, the progressive quartet What Strange Beasts dropped their latest single “Cat’s Paw” on the 18th of November, 2022. Using their big harmonies and solid arrangements, “Cat’s Paw” can easily slip into your favorites playlist, let me tell you why.
With spacey mellow arpeggios “Cat’s Paw” opens, before it explodes into a big theatrical sound with massive harmonies. What Strange Beasts’ multi-layered vocal style and melodic fluid riffing hand in hand created a huge wall of sound, that kept on pushing the song’s dynamics upwards and getting bigger as the song progressed. The way they arranged and layered the chorus riffs gave those riffs their very own groove, matching with the vocal melodies to deliver a remarkably catchy chorus. After the second chorus, came a keyboard section that reminded me of some 70 art rock’s glorious moments, followed by some subtle cool guitar work showing their solid progressive roots and well-knowledge of their sound and specified vision, and this is clearly shown throughout the whole song’s mixing and production.
“Cat’s Paw” has a smooth flow with instruments and vocals all coming out together in one big stream of melodies, creating its bright colorful sound. It gives us a glimpse of What Strange Beasts’ progressive sound, and how it’s highly influenced by psychedelic and art rock legends without losing their unique touch. I think I’ll be keeping an eye on What Strange Beasts, looking forward to more, cheers!
