Cat Satisfaction Survey

The bulk of the album was recorded in one week at HQ Studios, Manchester, England in March 2001, with additional overdubs by Geoff Howe over the period March-October. It was released in October 2001 on ampcast.com.

Stealth Munchkin's line-up for this album was:
Andrew Hickey (me) - lead and rhythm guitar, bass, keyboards, backing vocals
Stephen Bray - lead vocals
Trevor DeMont - rhythm guitar, bass, drums, backing vocals
Geoff Howe - backing vocals, occasional additional guitar and percussion

With
Katy Hickey - backing vocals on She's In The Sun and Velodrome Of Luck

Lost In Special, the opening track, is a duet between Ste and Geoff that was written by myself (music) and Trevor (lyrics). A McCartneyesque power pop song in C, reminiscent of the earlier Munchkin song Yesterday's News. Trevor and I play guitars, I play bass and Trevor drums.

Can't Cry No More is another collaboration between Trevor and myself. The lyrics address Trevor's feelings about the death of his father, while the music is my attempt at being Neil Young. The only instrumentation on this is one slide guitar by me, and Trevor's drums. As on the rest of the album, Ste sings lead.

She's In The Sun is an absolutely gorgeous ballad with which I had absolutely nothing to do. Trevor wrote it (with some help from Mark Shinkonis, and played all the instruments. Ste sings lead and Geoff, with some assistance from my sister, provides stunning Beach Boys style harmonies. The one truly great track on the album.

I Saw You is a rip off by Ste and myself of 20th Century Boy and is not very good at all, although my solo is quite impressive for me.

In Transition is a rather odd little song by Trevor, who does most of the instrumentation, apart from some keyboards by me and percussion by Geoff, who adds backups too. Oddly catchy.

Mayan Blood started out as my attempt to sound like Tom Waits, veered into me trying to sound like Smile-era Brian Wilson during recording and ended up sounding like another of my songs. Oh well. Trevor adds bass and drums and wrote the words, and we all did backing vocals.

Time You Realise is a great blues song by Trevor that's ruined IMO by the Pink Floyd style reverb he sprayed the track with. My only contribution is the lead guitar. Everything else is Trevor. You should have heard the demo.

Velodrome Of Luck is a song that Trevor wrote the music for but disowned. Ste and co-lyricist Stu Lowes get sole writing credits. This has everyone on it, and in my opinion is a very good little pop song, but Trevor disagrees.

We'll Share The Stars is a good album filler pop song written by Trevor and Eirn Lavelle. I play lead guitar, Trevor plays everything else, Geoff adds backups. Nothing special, but not at all bad either.

Bedsit Music by Ste and myself, is a song neither of us are proud of but that gets good reactions from others.

Timeless/Haunt Me is a song by Ste and Trevor. All I can remember about this is that it took about as much time to mix as the entire rest of the album, and I now have a conditioned reaction against the phrase 'I hear it calling me'.

Domestic Scenario is a Kinks knock-off by Ste and myself. It's inane filler, but fun (although the lyrics are very angsty)

Sunset Heart is another of Trevor's great songs which are better than any of mine. Ste, Geoff and Trevor only on this one...

Do What You Will is written entirely by me, based around a quote from St. Augustine (or Aleister Crowley - take your pick) and the chords to Forever by Dennis Wilson, but it ends up sounding like a rip-off of A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Ste sings, Trevor plays rhythm and tambourine, I add acoustic lead and organ. One of the only songs of mine on the album I really like.

And the less said about the bonus track the better...

Despite the description, and despite the fact that it's me writing this, it really is quite a good album, and you can judge for yourselves - most of it's available as free MP3 downloads at http://www.ampcast.com/stealthmunchkin , but it is, of course, doomed to obscurity...