GRANDADDY
Just Like the Fambly Cat
V2
· The Final Push to the Sum, a dignified exit for Jason Lytle.
From the beginning, Jason Lytle and Grandaddy chronicled the interaction of technology and society with a humanistic optimism. Where The Sophtware Slump is indeed their masterpiece (arguably holding together better as a whole than the Flaming Lips’ similarly minded Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots), Just Like the Fambly Cat sees Grandaddy bowing out with sunken shoulders – if not totally defeated, then at least a little bit embittered at how things turned out.
There’s a revitalized energy to the likes of "Jeez Louise" and "Elevate Myself," both sounding perfectly at home on the group’s 1997 debut, Under the Western Freeway, making up in at least some small part for the sleepy drive of 2003’s mid-tempo Sumday.
There’s no re-invention of the wheel at play in Fambly Cat’s lengthy mass, but instead it perfects unique formulas that made Grandaddy so wonderful in the first place. Lytle’s strength, for one, has always been in his dreamy epics. "Summer... it’s Gone," "Guide Down Denied" and "Rear View Mirror" all hold their own wealth of murky headphone exploration. Unlike the finest moments from the Grandaddy discography, however, this time out there’s less light at the end of the tunnel.
Announcing Grandaddy’s end before Fambly Cat’s release (there’s no real tour or promotion to speak of), Lytle’s lyrics take on the additional weight of the wunderkid who didn’t quite make it. Singing, "I don’t wanna be the story of the guy who tried," ("Guide Down Denied") and minutes later adding, "I don’t wanna work all night and day on writing songs that make the young girls cry" ("Elevate Myself"), Lytle walks away from his rock ’n’ roll life with his hands in his pocket, the proverbial "fambly cat" gazing at the open highway on the album’s front cover. As a resigned send-off, Just Like the Fambly Cat’s a gorgeous way to make a dignified exit.
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