Album Review: The Kates, Between Takes

For a variety of reasons, some bands never get beyond their first album – but few announce beforehand that their debut is also their last. The all-female, West Cork soft-rock outfit The Kates have done just that, citing the practical difficulties of keeping the show going while trying to attend to other duties.

Equipped with confident musicianship, impressive solo vocals and upbeat harmonies, The Kates inhabit a space between The Staves and Haim, but revealing a more musical maturity than either.

So what will we miss? ‘All That Talk’ boasts a captivating melody, with lyrics about facing challenging obstacles. A sturdy, guitar-driven rhythm propels ‘Unbalancing’, which also features some neat vocal interplay. Seductive, cathedral-like keyboard opens ‘Cover Me Over’, which later incorporates noisy guitar washes.

Elsewhere, ‘Wires Crossed’ deals with fun-free misunderstandings, while the manifesto-like ‘Between Truths’ takes a hard line on political and social oppression, and ‘Only Us’ is a stinging rebuke to our collective empathy deficit.

By going out on a high, maybe The Kates will prove that sometimes enough is actually enough. As for us, as Joni Mitchell sang: you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

8/10