Track Listing

1. What Happened...
2. Jeez Louise
3. Summer...It*S Gone
4. Oxygen / Aux Send
5. Rear View Mirror
6. The Animal World
7. Skateboarding Saves Me Twice
8. Where I*M Anymore
9. 50%
10. Guide Down Denied
11. Elevate Myself
12. Campershell Dreams
13. Disconnecty
14. This Is How It Always Starts

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34953 in Music
• Released on: 2006-05-09
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Spacey atmospherics, equal parts guitar and synth, and perfect pop songs seamlessly congeal into a potent distillation of the Grandaddy sound. Wonderfully ambitious, endlessly melodic, and surprisingly all encompassing, it's like a "Greatest Hits" made up entirely of brand new songs. "The best Grandaddy record thus far...the record pounces upon teary piano bridges, epic electronic washes, 'Sumday' style narratives, dissonant guitar-driven rockers, and six-plus minute prog-pop opuses" - Filter.

Amazon.com
As a farewell note, Just Like the Fambly Cat does its job. The final Grandaddy album reminds you of all the things that made the Modesto, California band special, while at the same time confirming all the reasons it never had the kind of mainstream breakthrough tasted by like-minded psychedelic pop adventurers like the Flaming Lips and Radiohead. It's at once uneven and inspiring, with lush tracks like "The Animal World" and "Campershell Dreams" setting the bar sky-high. But it's hard to ignore the sense of rot setting into the music, especially when beneath the luster of "Guide Down Denied," the band's brainchild Jason Lytle spells out his disillusionment so clearly: "All my friends are home indoors, reading about me, feeling sorry for the guy who tried." --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

This is GRANDADDY..Perfected and disconnected
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.

Something Different
Come on! This is an incredible CD. People are always talking about wanting to discover something different - this is it. By different, I don't mean to say weird and inaccessible. No, this is really great stuff, and it sounds like nothing else out there. It could perhaps be the offspring of a pairing of, bizarre as it sounds, the Beatles and Weezer. Be patient. A first listen can sound corny to the uninitiated. Repeated listening will reveal an inspired depth and vision. OK, I'm making myself sick. But really, this deserves a listen.

Their "Grandaddiest" album
Ah, memories...
Just Like The Fambly Cat is most definitely a record for the fans. And this review is going to also be for the fans. Let's look back, one last time:

Remember "El Caminos in the West?" I do. I thought that was as rocking as Grandaddy was going to let themselves get. Boy was I wrong! Album opener (and appropriately named head-banger) "Jeez Louise" gets things going at full volume. Jason Lytle sings with more of a snarl than ever before.
Or how about "Broken Household Appliance National Forest?" What I loved about that song the first time hearing it through was Grandaddy's complete disregard for verse-chorus-verse. Instead, if they wanted a guitar solo, hell, there'd be a solo. The solo would fade out into silence, and then the verse would star up again. Track 3 on JLTFC, "Summer... It's Gone," takes turns that are just as unpredictable and exciting. I don't wanna ruin the surprise for you, but edgy pop songs turn into martian landscapes and back again.
And you know what, there's no shame in repeating the same four chords for five minutes. It worked wonders on "Laughing Stock," and it's even more powerful (much more) on "This is How it Always Starts." Digital whooshes break like waves over the "ooo"s and "aaa"s that have become a staple of the Grandaddy sound. And this time, I can't sense the slightest reservation in the vocal performance.

But this isn't just a record of rehashed ideas. There's a lot of new ground as well. "Elevate Myself" for instance is unlike any Grandaddy song I've ever heard. It seems to be a song about the struggles Jason Lytle has had being in this band, or writing music, or whatever it is that troubles him.
"I don't wanna work all night and day on writing songs that make the young girls cry / or playing little solos on a keyboard the kids'll ask me how and why." and then later on "I don't wanna be a part of all the quality that falls apart these days / I'd rather make an honest sound and watch it fly around and then be on my waaaay."
And this is the single, folks.

Most notably though, is the production. Every sound on this record fits flawlessly with every other sound. Songs twist and turn in ways that are more than welcome, they are thrilling. Pop songs are outfitted with screeching keyboards and string arrangements, all in the same breath. Then the songs themselves melt away, but always manage to find themselves.

Unfortunately, this isn't THE perfect Grandaddy record every Grandaddy fan knows these guys had in them. There are still a couple of tracks that don't hold up. But, by the end of the record, it's impossible to not feel that the world of music is taking a huge loss by the break up of this band.

If you've never heard Grandaddy before, this album is their most indulgent, but don't let that scare you. I know I said that this record is for the fans, but after listening to it, you'll be one, too.