The recurring theme in Valley of Cats is a backwood rough-and-tumble approach to Southern Rock.   There's a little bit of drunken lumberjack-style aggression on the album, but for the most part, it has ax-wielding accuracy.  "Crows On the Move" and "How Tall Are You?" both feature huge, distorted guitar riffs and big drums that skid around between beats.  And, perhaps a nod to Creedence's "Fortunate Son", the intro of "Ask For Attention" gives way to a swinging blues jam that feels about as Southern as you can get.  

Valley of Cats has a few noteworthy, slower, more premeditated moments as well.  "They Are Supreme" is an alluring brush-drum ballad with intruiguing acoustic interplay.  "TransAtlantic", though heavier, is still a nifty log cabin piano/guitar jam with a slow gallop that an undercover thoroughbred might hustle with.  The wiry guitar solo wraps up the package tightly like a long red ribbon.  "Hydrogen Fires" begins as a calm, lengthy intro that eventually expands into a simple, yet dark, jam.  In all its hard and soft moments, the album stays within a concentrated mood of eye-twitchingly clever rock, and possesses a solid amount of fetching tunes.

Overall, Valley of Cats puts a lot of well-designed effort into the magnitude of each of its distorted songs.  Throaty, reaching vocals and drums that can go from gliding to pounding in a second give each track a level of intensity that a lot of alt-country and Southern rock bands can't.  Each track has a lot of momentum to keep pushing the Southern indie scene.  Backwoods does not mean backwards.

-Chris Fore
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