SHOWTIME- Catfish and The Bottlemen are back

After a nearly three year Hiatus, Catfish And The Bottlemen have graced us with a new song today titled ‘Showtime’. As A big fan of the band I feel like I have been sitting on the edge of my seat for this day since Reading and Leeds Festival announced them as one of their headliners for this coming season and honestly, it was extremely worth the wait.

Before diving into the song, I just want to applaud Catfish’s media team, because those posters that have been dotted around Manchester have driven everyone in the music community (including myself) into a frenzy, which I would say is a job well done, but anyhow, back to the song.

The tune, aptly named ‘Showtime’, opens with a fast paced bass line, reminiscent of what we all know the band does best, which is creating high energy indie-rock hits. However, as the song progresses, we start to hear something a bit different. Before heading into their hiatus in 2021, the band faced a lot of criticism for all of their songs sounding the same, and you can tell that this time round they’ve really taken these remarks on. We’re used to a really modern rock sound coming from Catfish and the Bottlemen, but throughout ‘Showtime’ we are instead offered a track full of crackly guitar riffs, fuzzy drum beats and muted vocals, almost making you feel like you are listening to a band from long ago on a record player.

This nostalgic feel is intensified through the lyrics. Front man and composer Van McCann opens the song with the line ‘back to the graft again’ For me, this line instantly established the band as being back indefinitely after their hiatus, or ‘long weekend’ as McCann later goes onto describe it. Similar to the posters appearing last week precursing this release that (as mentioned previously) caused quite a stir, this tune is full of easter eggs tailor made to get us talking about the band again. Van explains his intentions for the future of the band’s music, singing the lyrics, ‘back to the fields again, when we headline Leeds we’ll be back my friend’ and ‘making tracks again, cause we set out sights on the goal that ends.’ Both of these lyrics are suggestive of many exciting projects in the works, some that we already know (their Reading and Leeds headline spot) and some that are yet to be revealed to us. Finally, the song ends with the repetition of the line ‘get on this’, which, to my mind feels like a call to arms, as if Van and the band are telling their fans to get back on board with them as the journey through the industry, as they have much more left to give.

While I’ve seen on different internet platforms that many people were expecting a more explosive comeback from Catfish, for me this song acts as both a piece of closure from their old sound, as well as a perfect reintroduction to the band as Van and the new, unknown band mates ( to our knowledge none of the original members bar McCann are involved in this project) venture into a fresh era of music. And, with the promise of a new album along with some headline shows in Edinburgh and Cardiff, I am extremely excited to see what happens next.