Just Like the Fambly Cat

by

Grandaddy

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What a melancholy and wonderous listen...goodbye's are always so sad, especially when you know you'll never see them again. I wish the boys would tour in support, but alas...The album is great, what Grandaddy was meant to be (IMO). Do they blaze new trails into uncharted territory?..no, and I'm glad. I wanted the last Grandaddy album to be a Grandaddy album and they did a spectacular job. 14 tracks, 11 of which are magic, 2 hold there own, and then there is "..what happened..", the opener, which I will never skip on the CD player...it sets the tone for the last hurrah. The last 1/3 of the album is just plain ridiculous (in a good way). Elevate, Campershell, Disconnecty..OH MAN! It does indeed sound like a "best of" of all new songs...Crystalline production, as always...this will be in rotation for a LONG TIME. A pleasure to watch this band grow throughout the years...thanks Jason, Aaron, Tim, Jim and Kev...You're disconnected but we still love you! PEACE.

Purchasing this album with the foreknowledge that it would be their last (it was announced months in advance) certainly colored the listening experience -- there is a certain expectation that defeat would be evident in the songs.

Since stumbling into Grandaddy fandom (I saw them open for Elliott Smith in Detroit and was smitten with their sound and their stage demeanor) I've ravenously obtained all their releases as soon as they hit record store bins. I was nervous about this one.

And indeed it was a sleeper. Maybe "creeper" would be a more appropriate term. It took a while to give it a full, attentive listen. It felt like an obituary at first. The rockier songs seemed more complicated, fuller, and less developed all at once. It was the mellower songs like "Skateboarding Saves Me Twice" and "The Animal World" that connected more readily.

Well...

Time has passed and with it has come perspective. From the Todd Rundgren-esque meows of "Where I'm Anymore" to the near-coda "This Is How It Always Starts" to out-of-the-box catchiness ("Elevate Myself," "Jeez Louise"), Fambly Cat is far from the disconnected mess I had prepared myself for.

Sure, it's no concept album either. But it's stuffed with songs that easily stand alongside their best material from "Under The Western Freeway" and "Sophtware Slump" and the slew of highly worthwhile singles and EPs they've released. Some of the polish of "Sumday" is jettisoned, though longer songs still prevail.

I wish the rating system included half-stars because this is a really strong 3.5