SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME

 ONE KISS WILL END IT ALL (Polyvinyl)

17/20  

Indiepop maven Fred Thomas’ Saturday Looks Good To Me unofficially went on hiatus in 2008. After four years of releases by affiliated acts such as City Center and Drunken Barn Dance, as well as Thomas’s prolific solo work, the band regrouped (with a new vocalist in Carol Gray), returned to their old home at Polyvinyl Records and released the track Sunglasses in the latter half of 2012. That song was decent enough, but one of the weaker links in the gorgeous, summer-appropriate gem that is One Kiss Ends It All. The lo-fi opener One Kiss is sonically incongruous to the album, a watery, warped twilight shimmer replete with lilting piano and off-tone vocals. Invisible Friend, on the other hand, is hi-def, C86-indebted indie pop of the highest calibre: this is near perfect pop songwriting. Terse, punchy and without an extraneous element, the song perfectly exemplifies SLGTM’s skills in classicist songcraft. It’s bordering on twee, sure, but the track’s “I love you the best” vocal refrain is both inane and achingly sweet, Gray’s vocals punchy and powerful enough to carry the sentiment without swerving in to cloying territory. The band experiment with – and wholly nail – a variety of sonic tones and styles, from Radio Department style Scando-Balaeriac groove (Polar Bear) to downbeat 50s doo-wop shuffle (Negative Space), via gloaming synth haze and major-key power pop. The album peaks, though, halfway through with the gorgeous The Everpresent New Times Condition. A brief, melancholy loop of dual cello segues quickly into stripped down, sighing widescreen pop; warm electric keyboards quietly play off against cleanly picked guitar lines and Gray delivers the album’s strongest, most whistful vocal, its melodies reminiscent of the glory days of early Death Cab for Cutie. Unrelentingly dreamy.

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Words: Tom Howells