"Essential" is not at all too strong a word to use for
Hefner's
Catfight. This two-disc, 43-track set collects B-sides, comp tracks and rarities from the defunct British indie rock trio
Hefner's 1994-2001 career, and is the perfect adjunct to 2006's equally fine best-of collection. Listening to
Catfight reveals a side of
Hefner that the hits compilation glosses over, but which was vitally important to the band and its audience:
Hefner were the sharpest pop satirists this side of
Half Man Half Biscuit, with a similar fondness for using fellow pop bands, movie stars, and other totems of U.K. pop culture as signifiers in their sharply-drawn vignettes and character studies. Their other point of comparison to
HMHB is the way
Hefner incorporated folky acoustic tunes into their mod-like Brit-pop, an important side of the band that their later albums sometimes obscured. Those acoustic tunes, featuring singer/songwriter
Darren Hayman alone with a guitar or piano, are a major part of
Catfight, but the set also contains quirky genre exercises like the electro-dance track "Fist Footed," the old-school synth pop instrumental "Hymn for the 1950s Folk Revival," and the sparse "OMD," an elegy for a failed romance set to one heavily distorted electric guitar and an echo pedal. An utterly faithful cover of
the Mountain Goats' "Orange Ball of Hate" is another unexpected highlight, as is the delightful country-rock shuffle "New French Tits." The entire collection is as varied and enjoyable as any of
Hefner's proper albums. ~ Stewart Mason