Cary Pratt’s Prairie Cat has stepped out of bedroom pop and into the
world of pure pop. Ring-tone rappers and Rock Band rock stars
may infest the industry, but Pratt has a formula that will save his
soul, and his listeners’ alike: have fun and stay human. Sparks is an album built up from two years of break-up recuperation—but is
there any better source of creativity? A track like “Just Cuz” could
make you cry if it didn’t accept failure so cutely (“I’m over here
now/you’re over there now”), and “Get Off” could sound bitter if Pratt
wasn’t having such a good time singing away his sorrows.
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2009.