Saturday Looks Good To Me One Kiss Ends It All

Saturday Looks Good To Me has always been about transitions and change, with the constant switching of band members and the affinity towards recruiting new singers on every album (if not every track). On the eighth studio release, One Kiss Ends It All, the single constant of the band and mastermind Fred Thomas has thrown a little bit of everything, making it a bit uneven and plodding in a few spots, but also with moments of spaced-out pop bliss. While it can feel bogged down with all this audio tinkering, there are times when the band stops fiddling and starts playing, and it's here you come to realize that there are some very good space-pop songs to be had. 

The album starts with the warbling, tilting One Kiss, which is hardly any more than an instrumental track, but lets you know what you're getting into right from the start with its partially skewed melody and almost overbearing fuzz. It has the feeling of something that has been tweaked and tuned until the creator felt it was just right, and the sonic effects are as constant as the guitars. The song New City, which reins in the wandering zoned-out vibe of the album and instead goes for a more direct approach, is one of the better songs on the album. With a rambling guitar, some powerful drum backing and a chorus that sounds like an out-of-tune jazz ensemble (in a really good way), it's a perfect piece of shoegaze pop. Likewise, the low backbeat of Sunglasses combines with singer Carole Catherine's lilting voice to create an odd but hella catchy song. "I feel like I can't be wrong/in bed with my sunglasses on", she explains, and she's so confident you don't have the heart to argue that's probably the last place you need shades.

However, whenever you go down the fuzzed-out psychedelia path, you risk the chance of stretching some of the meandering random melodies out to the point of annoyance, and One Kiss has a couple places where you may be tempted to skip on to the next song. The slow-burnt ender Space Children is a prime example - it starts with an upbeat melody, but eventually gets mired in repetition and the feeling that the song was created just so they could sing "My space children" (get it, MySpace?). Likewise, the song Johnny is a bit of a dull affair, without much to keep the listener's attention and plenty of empty space to lose it.

Fortunately, these random detours into boring aren't the norm on the album. Overall, One Kiss Ends It All is a little uneven but still an enjoyable piece of cosmic pop, and once you get past the occasional stutter, there is a lot to take from this one. If only every day could be Saturday.