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Sumday
07/01/2003 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef
Modesto slacker pop combo Grandaddy are confronted by evil forces from without and within, endless rock CD reissues and suburban boredom following them like ghosts. But do they let that get them down? Well, almost. Sumday is sickly sweet, mechanized, and crotchety, like your granddad shaving with an electric razor only to realize that his face is melting and the pacemaker has stalled.
Sumday's songs move slowly and deliberately, dressed with tender, Cars-era grooves, Alan Parsons Project production (remember "Eye In The Sky"?), and vocals that sound like Carl Wilson crooning from the grave. The album may not improve on 2001's Sophtware Slump, but its pleasures lie in accepting reasonable underachievement, and knowing that speed kills. Sumday is grand music for cruising and dreaming, not cursing and dancing.
It takes awhile but Grandaddy eventually get happy with "Lost On Yer Merry Way," "El Caminos In The West" (Simon & Garfunkel meets Weezer), "Yeah Is What We Had," and "Saddest Vacant Lot In All The World." The latter is a ringer for the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home" status. The song is so sappy and dripping with candy-ass harmonies you can easily imagine a little puppy smiling up at you, a puddle increasing beneath him. "The Final Push To The Sum" closes Sumday as it began, heavenly Celeste, peaceful nature sounds and angelic vocals requesting a final, awe-releasing flush. Welcome.
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