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In preparation for the release of their latest full-length, Saturday Looks Good to Me have released this 7". It points towards an exciting new direction for the band. Previous releases by SLGTM have shown a certain Motown influence on their sound, specifically in the catchy girl-group pop that they make. Well, the two songs here are more Phil Spector than Barry Gordy, more wall of sound than sheer catchiness. Not to say that these songs are noisy and un-poppy. Instead, in the true spirit of Spector, these songs combine dense production with feel-good rhythms.
The A-side is No Reaction sung by current SLGTM vocalist Betty Marie Barnes. She sounds more mature here than she did on Every Night. She is throatier than before. However, behind her voice is a fuzzy and dense wall of guitar, drums, and bass. It's catchy, noisy, and rather fun.
Side B is No Reception which is a Fred Thomas-vocaled ballad. It starts with his plaintive voice and light acoustic guitar, before adding in layers of organ and electric guitar. Eventually the song positively explodes with full instrumentation. Again, the sound is dense, and the voice almost gets lost. It's still a catchy song, a little less frantically paced than the A-side, but it moves along happily in a dense sonic fog. Rather nice.
Now, on to my pet peeve regarding 7" records. Pedal
Bark Records score very low here -- nowhere on the record nor the sleeve can i find a speed. Also, both sides are labeled only with the word "NO", so you are left to wonder which one is No Reaction and which is No Reception. Faced with this ambiguity, i picked a side at random and stuck it on the turntable at the speed it was currently set to, which was 33 RPM from listening to old Stones records. Well, i picked the right side randomly, since i did start off with No Reaction, but i got the speed wrong. I must say, however, that the opening guitar, bass, and drums bit sounds really cool slowed down. However, when the voice started i instantly knew i had the wrong speed.
Overall, while neither song is an instant classic like, say, Dial Tone, the band continues to entertain and grow. I am pleased with both songs, and am very curious to hear a full record of this sort of dense sound.
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