This is Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. Today’s video is ‘Crab Day’ by Cate Le Bon.
It’s the fifth week of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time series, and this week we’ve seen honourable mentions for Life in Analogue from Cotton Wolf, 1,2 Kung Fu! from Boy Azooga, and Tincian from 9Bach.
Continuing our look back at some of the best music videos to come from these 100 greatest albums, today we’ve selected ‘Crab Day’ from Cate Le Bon as our video of the week.
As part of this week’s countdown, Caragh Medlicott wrote of Cate Le Bon’s album, Crab Day:
“Cate Le Bon’s fourth album (and her second record produced stateside) is a shimmery, off-kilter exercise in lyrical abstraction and sonic lushness. Le Bon began work on the album by first irking out its sonic soundscape, even establishing wordless vocal harmonies, all before sitting down to pen the lyrics to go with it. Like a pencil drawing sketched onto a wet, paint-heavy canvas, the effect is one of beautiful abstraction – its lyrical diversions less important than the poetry of its sound, the baroque feel of its teetering, flourishing arrangements. With slips of marimba, parps of sax and Le Bon’s trademark post-punk guitar riffs, the record manages to conjure lightness – oxymoronically – through its density. Nestled at the heart of its baroque meanders and dadaist sensibilities is a love of play, one clearly in evidence in the single for which the album is named – ‘Crab Day’ – the song recounting an imaginary holiday, its outlook irreverent, its lyrics intoned with Le Bon’s characteristic staccato style. In totality, the album offers a unique and beautifully rendered tracklist, one which grows lovelier and more detailed with each passing listen.”
Watch the video for ‘Crab Day’ below, and take a look at albums 60-51 of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time countdown here.
Crab Day from Cate Le Bon is available to stream on Spotify.