The Answer Is In The Beat

Saturday Looks Good To Me: Sunglasses 7″ (Polyvinyl, 2012) and split 7″ with Traffic Light (Violet and Claire, 2012)

February 24, 2013 at 4:12 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

4 years after SLGTM ended and Fred Thomas started focusing on City Center, the band has resurfaced with a new lineup (of course) and new songs, with plans to release an album this year. Life Like released a tour tape last year, which was excellent and full of promise for the new album. Before the end of the year, 2 7″s were also released, giving us a clearer taste of the band’s new sound. “Sunglasses” is their latest earworm, and the album’s first single. While it still has their classic pop sound, it’s a little bit alarming to hear modern, almost crunk-sounding drum machine beats come in when the vocals first hit, and again towards the end. The rest of the song has their usual full pop-band sound, with baritone sax by Dan Bennett (also of NOMO), some surfy guitar, and lyrics about wanting to have a good time in spite of life’s pressures and frustrations. Fred’s been saying that the new album is musically more subtle and intricate than their older stuff, and this is an intriguing taste of that. Also, the vocals are by new singer Carol Catherine, who fits in with the band’s sound, although I do have to say that my favorite SLGTM songs tended to be the ones with Erika Hoffman singing, mostly because her voice just sounded so awesome and I really miss Godzuki and the songs she did with His Name Is Alive. So we’ll see how Carol continues the band’s legacy. The B-side is a minute-long duet by Fred and Amber, singing slightly creepy lyrics over nervous, warbling organ.

The other new SLGTM single is a split 7″ on Japanese label Violet and Claire. The song’s called “Ride To The Party”, and it also appeared on their tour tape last year. It’s a little bit similar to one of their other new songs, “Invisible Friend”, which was also on that tape, although I think this song’s maybe a little lass catchy. But it’s still a breezy, sunny pop song, with an insistent drumbeat and some cool synth sounds towards the end. Not as intricate as “Sunglasses”, and maybe it goes down a little easier too. The B-side is by Japanese band Traffic Light, who do a decent take on straightforward power-pop.