HEART CAT STORM

Cat Storm - Heart 

Neil Tennant must have had a premonition. If we are to believe the memories, he shared with us in the foreword to his book "One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem," the very first line of lyrics Neil wrote for a song as a child was: 

Has anyone seen my cat  The one with the long tail? 

As the Pet Shop Boys, Tennant and his musical partner Chris Lowe have shaped and influenced pop culture from the late 20th century to the present day, forever altering our perception of both the visible and the invisible world. Visually, poetically, and musically, and on another level, also in terms of art, politics, and society. 

Over five decades, across 15 studio albums and well over 70 singles, the Pet Shop Boys have created their own universe of searching for and finding love, pain and loss, escape and hedonism, authenticity and artificiality, identity and masquerade, and ultimately, the blurring boundaries between our private and political spheres. 

Engaging yourself artistically with this unique body of work is as appealing as it is risky. Hundreds of Pet Shop Boys cover versions already exist, and the art of covering songs is a complex pop-cultural game, one that Tennant and Lowe themselves have mastered to perfection. 

Because that's what great cover versions are all about: a sophisticated interplay of allusions and references, quotations, and the spirals of one's own and borrowed memories. Cover versions are homage, appropriation, and interpretation, like adding more letters to Scrabble: a new word, a new meaning. Or, at its best: a new song. 

Into this labyrinth now enters: Cat Storm. And she’s making the first move in this game with one of the all-time great Pet Shop Boys classics: "Heart." 

Every time I see you // something happens to me // like a chain reaction // between you and me 

What at first glance, with its opening bars featuring typical 80s synths and drums, might seem like just another version of "Heart" closely following the original, is above all a merciless declaration of love for the Pet Shop Boys themselves, an opening plea that addresses the emotional origin and artistic beginning of the entire project, both musically and lyrically. After all, how could one better flatter the work of the Pet Shop Boys, who throughout their career have built an entire cathedral of hidden depths, plastic, camp, and subtle irony, than with apparent authenticity? 

Next up is the rather obscure, but incredibly captivating "The Way It Used to Be" from the 2009 album "Yes." Cat Storm remains close to the electro-pop of the original, but emotionally, everything here delves much deeper into melancholy, as far as that's even possible compared to Neil Tennant's world-weariness. The relentless question "What Is Left of Love?" becomes the song's central mantra. The track ends, however, with the lines: 

What remains in time that didn't fade away?  Sometimes I need to see  The way it used to be 

"The Way It Used to Be" is a song about dealing with one's past, clinging to it, and letting go. Cover versions are vessels into which artists pour their pain, storing it away, bringing it out again at some point, re-examining it. Or, to quote Tocotronic: Looking back creates things, looking forward creates happiness. 

Who is Cat Storm? Who is this voice, so cool and fragile, that stands alongside icons like Patsy Kensit, Dusty Springfield, and Liza Minnelli? 

The search for the mysterious Cat Storm ultimately leads to Cologne's so-called art and music scene. Rumour has it that the woman in her glittering swimsuit originally immigrated to Cologne from southern Germany, her background more hooligan than art school. Cat Storm produced her EP together with some of the grand masters of the local indie and electronic music scene.  The EP also includes three remixes: oskø's Cologne-style minimal techno takes "A Man Could Get Arrested" and slowly glides into the darkroom; Christian Skrzypek strips down and deconstructs "Home & Dry"; and Clima transposes "The Way It Used To Be" into a 90s garage house jam. 

If you want to walk, don't talk, do it

If you want to earn, learn how to do it

And if you wanna ride, don't hide, do it

If you want to stay, don't say, prove it 

Pet Shop Boys / Cat Storm: A Man Could Get Arrested 

----- Tobias Thomas, March 2026