Saturday Looks Good To Me

From its launch in 2000, Saturday Looks Good to Me has centered on the singular vision of indie pop prodigy Fred Thomas, the outfit’s only steadfast participant across more than two decades. Thomas, whose earlier affiliations included Flashpapr and Lovesick, initially conceived the enterprise as a playful exercise in fabricating an album for a nonexistent ensemble. Enlisting several sympathetic collaborators, he composed and recorded nine tracks that channeled 1960s pop touchstones—Motown, Brian Wilson, and Phil Spector among them—while also absorbing currents from present-day indie rock. The resulting material appeared on a limited vinyl pressing issued by Here Forever Always in spring 2000, followed by a CD edition two years afterward. A CD-R set titled Cruel August Moon, also known as I Take a Chance Every Time, surfaced that same autumn. The project remained one among many Thomas pursuits until 2002, when Saves the Day encountered the debut album and extended an invitation to join their national tour. Thomas recruited a performing lineup, and the trek proved sufficiently successful to attract a wider audience and secure a contract with Illinois independent Polyvinyl Records. Polyvinyl issued the second album, All Your Summer Songs, in March 2003; the third, Every Night, followed that autumn in simultaneous vinyl and CD editions whose track listings matched yet whose mixes and recordings differed. In the intervals between full-lengths, Thomas and associates issued numerous singles, EPs, and CD-Rs, the majority of which were later gathered on the 2006 anthology Sound on Sound. Regular touring during this period helped cultivate a growing reputation for distinctive, high-caliber pop that drew the interest of venerable indie imprint K Records, which released the fourth proper album, Fill Up the Room, in autumn 2007. Experiments born of live performance also shaped the Cold Colors EP that year, an effort that foreshadowed the atmospheric electronics Thomas would later explore with City Center. Nearly six years elapsed before the next Saturday Looks Good to Me album. During the interim Thomas pursued several side endeavors, among them the Ryan Howard collaboration City Center and the surf-pop group Swimsuit. When One Kiss Ends It All emerged in 2013, it showcased multiple female vocalists and fused buoyant, summery melodies with an imaginative approach to production.