A void was left in the world for those that enjoyed the jangly indie pop of Saturday Looks Good To Me when the group disbanded sometime following a tour in 2008 leaving us all wondering if we would ever hear the fun and sweet music that only Fred Thomas and company had been providing since they started playing their unique take on indie pop; a teaser single (Sunglasses b/w Give Me Your Hands) surfaced late in 2012 that hinted at new music, and then One Kiss Ends It All showed up roughly six months after that (and there was much rejoicing).
One Kiss Ends It All immediately jumps out in the reverb drenched “One Kiss” (where the instruments sound like Fred Thomas found a way to make a pop shoegaze song), but that is not to say that the band is all wild with experimentation as the noise-y indie pop songs that fit well with the classic canon of Saturday Looks Good To Me are in fine form as evidenced by “Invisible Friend”, “New City” (great hook for a chorus), “Polar Bear” (another great vocal hook), and the catchy as hell single “Sunglasses” while the torch style ballads that the group has pulled out in the past are very much present in songs like “Negative Space” (though the space-y bridge on this tasty track adds a nice little something extra), “Are You Kissing Anyone”, and the mournful sounding “Johnny”.
Saturday Looks Good To Me seemingly pull all their influences and tie together the disparate sounds that the outfit has explored through the years into a solid exposition of the inner AM radio that apparently plays twenty-four seven in the mind of Fred Thomas making for a hell of a return for this gang, and listening to One Kiss Ends It All will definitely bring a smile to your face even if a bunch of the songs on the album deal with heartbreak and loss if only because they are executed so syrupy sweet that you might need to brush and floss your ears after listening; more than just a welcome return, One Kiss Ends It All might just be the kind of indie pop album that we have all been missing.
