Jul

24

2007

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Artist : Saturday Looks Good To Me
Album : Cold Colors
Release Date : July 24, 2007
Website : http://www.slgtm.com//
Label : Polyvinyl
Free Downloads : Meet Me By The Water
Rating : 5.5
Users Rating: 5 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (2 votes)

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Saturday Looks Good to Me releases their last ep on PolyVinyl before jumping ship to the venereable K Records. What “Cold Colors” may tell about their upcoming new album is … don’t expect the Beach Boys meets Phil Spector in a indie Motown studio kind of sound you are familiar with. The EP if played randomly could make you think you’re listening to the Animal Collective or Tunng.

“Cold Colors” surely isn’t your typical SLGTM album. Upon hearing the opening track for the first time I did wonder if the band was making a parody of the freak-folk bands, but sure enough its no joke. Hearing the band stretch their wings and venture into new sonic territory is usually a good thing, yet I couldn’t help wishing the band brought along those catchy melodies that existed in their songs of old. The first track “Cold Colors” starts off all acoustic in the manner of Animal Collective’s “The Softest Voice.” Quiet, airy acoustic strings, unexpected sound effects with no wall of sound, no catchy melodies. For long time SLGTM fans that one will likely make you do a double take. “Drink My Blood” has more Animal Collective like vocals accompanied by an acoustic guitar. The song’s only 1:45 minutes in length and thankfully so. The derivative quality of that song was to much for me to bear. The two most interesting songs are the last two tracks “Idiots” and “Spiderbite.” Idiots stands out for the playful lyrics about ..what else…Idiots. “Spiderbite” closes out the EP with a 9 minute plus epic that starts to put their new sound in perspective. The acoustic intro lays the groundwork for appealing droney guitars and then fierce tribal like poundings.

After three solid albums of retro indie pop, the band could have made another album of the same old or break radically from their old style. The band obviously chose the latter. The more experimental freak-folk sound leanings on “Cold Colors” doesn’t work all the time, which may have been the band’s intention. Most of the songs on the EP has the qualities of a band testing the waters, experimenting with what works and what they are capable of doing. A sketch of ideas coming together if you will. The biggest drawback to their new sound would be that the whole freak-folk type of sound doesn’t sound all that fresh or innovative these days. Yet, If tracks like “Spiderbite” is an indication of what SLGTM are capable of, more interesting things are surely to be found on their upcoming album from K Records. Just don’t forget about those catchy melodies!

buy it from
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Cold Colors - EP

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Tracklist :
01. Cold Colors
02. Drink My Blood
03. Illuminated Circles Dream Of Backwards Running Vampires
04. Idiots
05. Spiderbite

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2 Comments so far

  1. 2 Janni Says: August 7, 2007

    I don’t know. The “Green Mansions” EP was experimental and great. It was the perfect mix between “Summer Songs” and their older, more experimental “Warn Defever” stuff. And the experimental side is it what sets them apart from all those same sounding Swedish pop bands (most of the are…well)that are invading the Belle and Sebastian lines.

    I can’t get into this one though.. Spiderbites is the only good one on this record. But since it is an EP I think they were indeed testing a new style and for that alone it is worth the money…

  2. 1 Richard C Says: July 25, 2007

    The new album is nothing like this new EP, bar the last song on the album…maybe.

    The album is quite as poppy, and Betty Barnes only sings on one song, but it’s still got a nice shoo-wop kinda feel to it. It’s grand!