Editing Catatonia (band) (section)

==Musical style and influences==
Matthews said that they did not have any particular influences in their music. However, she said that her family had always been singing along to [[BBC Radio 2]]. She held the ambition to have the band appear on Radio 2, as due to poor levels of radio reception in Wales they had been unable to listen to other stations. She attributed the style of Welsh music as never attempting to be cool as they would not have been aware of what was in fashion at the time. Catatonia frequently used [[metaphor]]s in their songwriting, such as "Road Rage" which references emotional anger. The line "If it turns to blue, what are we going to do?" in the single "You've Got A Lot To Answer For" from ''Way Beyond Blue'' references a [[pregnancy test]]. Other works from ''International Velvet'' were compared to poetry by [[Katharine Viner]] in ''[[The Guardian]]''.<ref name=viner>{{cite news|last1=Viner|first1=Kartherine|title=Alive outside the M25|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/mar/06/weekend7.weekend1|access-date=2 April 2016|work=The Guardian|date=6 March 1999}}</ref>

All members of the band were involved in the writing of songs, and there may have been more than one person's set of lyrics appearing in a single release. Powell said that "It's quite interesting to have two people's viewpoints within the same song. I'm not sure how many bands actually do that. In most bands, the guitarist writes the music and the singer writes the lyrics. We tend to share things out more evenly."<ref name=abroad/> He also criticised the attachment of an [[indie pop]] label to the band, saying "We're seen as one of the indie bands. But we've always just tried to make pop music. Even if it is [[pop music]] with a hard edge and quite a twisted little view of life. We've always seen ourselves as a little bigger than an [[indie band]]."<ref name=abroad/>

The style of music played by Catatonia changed slightly over time. An article in ''[[The People (newspaper)|The People]]'' newspaper described ''International Velvet'' as the "purest pop".<ref>{{cite news|title=Songs for Polar Bears Are White at the Top of My List!|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60634199.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504201521/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60634199.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 May 2016|access-date=2 April 2016|work=The People|date=20 December 1998|url-access=subscription|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}</ref> By the time that ''Paper Scissors Stone'' was released, the band were using [[country music]] influences in some of their songs according to Fiona Shepherd at ''[[The Scotsman]]''. She compared the music to that of the Scottish band [[Mogwai]], while elements of "Nightfall" were compared to [[Arab Strap (band)|Arab Strap]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Shepherd|first1=Fiona|title=Crisis, but no drama Catatonia: Paper Scissors Stone|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18796047.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505061136/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18796047.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 May 2016|access-date=2 April 2016|work=The Scotsman|date=3 August 2001|url-access=subscription|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}</ref>