Local favorites Saturday Looks Good to Me’s popular 2003
Polyvinyl debut, All Your Summer Songs, drenched its
’60s summery pop with a fantastically lush, Spector-ized
production method that lent the album its lazy, dreamy mood. The
thick, underwater-like sound was undoubtedly its most striking
aspect. As a result, the crisper production on the band’s
latest release, Every Night, is somewhat disappointing to
listeners who are familiar with the band’s previous
sound.
To their credit, the clean and polished tracks sound like they
actually could have played on a radio during the ’60s, and
also reveal tighter songwriting and playing. The biggest
disadvantage of this sound, however, is now there is no way to
escape the fact that the female vocalists of Saturday Looks Good to
Me are incapable of singing in tune. Whereas the reverb-heavy
production of All Your Summer Songs obscured the vocals in a
thick haze, Every Night offers no place for the off-key
singers to hide. This is horribly evident in the nasal-voiced
“Empty Room”; luckily, the listener’s ears are
given a break during the middle eight with a bright keyboard
solo.
The song order of Every Night is a bit awkward, beginning
slowly with the languid “Since You Stole My Heart,”
which clues the listener in to the band’s signature
bittersweet lyrics, but not catching much interest right away.
Thankfully, the album then switches gears, becoming more upbeat and
showcasing a broad range of instruments, reminiscent of a peppier
Belle and Sebastian. Despite its unsettling out-of-tune vocals,
“All Over Town” features a catchy rhythm guitar sure to
induce dancing.
Frontman Fred Thomas sings on some of the tracks; he is also a
bit off-key (this is lo-fi indie pop, after all), but this works in
his favor. His plaintive voice works especially well on the
standout track, “If You Ask,” placed strategically in
the middle of the album. The jaunty, minimalist guitar is rounded
out by a soulful organ, warm strings and softly splashing cymbals
that are pleasantly similar to the wall of sound on All Your
Summer Songs.
Every Night is a step forward in terms of creative
instrumentation, as shown by the harp introduction in “We
Can’t Work It Out.” Thomas also breaks out an acoustic
guitar for a couple of songs, such as “Dialtone,” which
includes faint sounds of an audience in the background.
Overall, the album strikes a careful balance between the more
upbeat dance tunes and the slower, more nostalgic songs, which is
an improvement over All Your Summer Songs’ tendency to
drag in the middle. While Every Night successfully pleases
listeners with cute pop songs, fans of Saturday Looks Good to
Me’s old sound should approach this album with an open
mind.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars