Cities: More Information on The New Album

It's just a few days until the release of Cities: The Cat Empire Project. Excited yet? We are:

What do we know about it so far? According to the official description,

The recording project was written by front men Felix Riebl and Harry Angus and arranged by Ross Irwin of The Empire Horns and features guest performers: Kumar Shome (Sitar), Greg Sheehan (Tamb), Bobby Singh (Tablas), and the vocals of Nina Ferro and Julie O'Hara.

I guess this is why it is a "Cat Empire Project": there's a whole lot of collaboration going on! Julie O'Hara is no stranger to Cat Empire fans, and followers of Sydney-based group The Bird will be keen to hear anything that Bobby Singh is playing tabla on. Perhaps this album will be more serious and/or instrumental than the last?

Those of you who saw the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Melbourne have already heard at least some of the songs from the album; as we've already mentioned here in the news posts, the title track "Cities" is available on the official Commonwealth Games soundtrack, too.

Melbourne newspaper The Age has set hopes highly with a stunning review of the album,

.... But Cities is just one of those happy accidents that befalls a band that, in the jazz and Latin traditions they favour, lives to play and doesn't much care for pop's rules of engagement.

While Cities is being released in Australia, Two Shoes could be nearing a North American release. NineMSN reports that the band is close to signing contracts for Canada, the USA and Europe, and will be releasing a new edition of Two Shoes with some extra songs.