This recommendation comes straight from our Friend from the Crowd, Heitor Buchalla. Two Shoes by The Cat Empire is one of the albums that changed his life. To quote him:
“I was so surprised when I first listened to it like, 12 years ago maybe, fucking Aussies doing Gipsy Tango music. Um dos meus albums preferidos da vida.”
And it wasn’t difficult to understand why someone would carry it with them. The Cat Empire’s second record is simultaneously a party record, a freedom record and a nostalgia record. It can make you want to move, make you feel untethered and somehow return you to a place you may never have visited.
Recorded live over 28 days at Havana’s Estudio EGREM, Two Shoes brings ska, reggae, jazz, funk, hip-hop and Cuban music into the same room.
But didn’t we say they’re Australian? Yes, but the band absorbed these influences back in Melbourne, and they play with genuine understanding, curiosity and affection. In short, it’s not just for vibes.
“Sol y Sombra” might be where that connection is most vivid. Its cha-cha rhythm, timbales, horns and ever-progressing piano generate something far richer than simple happiness. As the title suggests, there is sun and shadow here as joy and death occupy the same dance floor
That coexistence runs through the album. “Sly” enters with confidence; “The Car Song” turns everyday frustration into imagined freedom and “Miserere” slows the pulse and lets sorrow enter. Even when Two Shoes sounds carefree, it never feels empty.
There is, admittedly, a lot happening. Listeners looking for restraint or a single coherent musical language may find its long arrangements excessive. But that abundance is also one of the record’s greatest strengths. There is always another rhythm, instrumental detail or emotional shade waiting to be discovered.
More importantly, it makes Two Shoes extraordinarily difficult to outgrow. Wherever you are and however you are feeling, there seems to be at least one song capable of meeting you there. It can soundtrack celebration, longing, sadness, escape or the strange nostalgia for a life that feels just beyond reach.
Heitor gave us an album that changed his life. What we found inside it was an album flexible enough to keep changing with ours.
Listen where you listen:
