"...Catholic Paws/Catholic Pause contains some of Rollerball's best-written, most memorable material. Plus, it features Mae Starr as a full-fledged singer, her deep alto voice crooning seductively. As usual with this band, the instrumentals shuffle the deck: odd beats, strange solos, a reggae feel here, an avant-garde jazz angularity there -- they act like prisms showing different facets of what has just been heard. Both songs and instrumentals are kept short and to the point: no wasted time, no extra chorus repeated for the sake of duration. Melodies are catchy enough to catch them the first time, so once they have been exposed, the band moves on to the next transitional tune, then straight into another song. The basic quintet receives help from a cast of regular friends, including singer Stefania Pedretti and drummer Bruno Dorella (of OvO), tubaist Ben Wright, and maverick sax player Jacopo Andreini. There is not a single throwaway on this album, except maybe for the "hidden"lo-fi jam, which will definitely not be to everyone's liking. But who cares, as long as there are songs like "Erzulie," "Tipping the Tree," and "Sores"? Recommended."-Francois Couture