Grandaddy - Just Like the Fambly Cat
List Price:
Our Price: $4.99
You Save: $11.99 (71%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.33 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: GrandaddyEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-05-09
Music Label: V2 North America
Soundtracks:
- What Happened...
- Jeez Louise
- Summer...It*S Gone
- Oxygen / Aux Send
- Rear View Mirror
- The Animal World
- Skateboarding Saves Me Twice
- Where I*M Anymore
- 50%
- Guide Down Denied
- Elevate Myself
- Campershell Dreams
- Disconnecty
- This Is How It Always Starts
Music reviews of Just Like the Fambly Cat
Music Review: The Bittersweet Symphony Ends
Rating: 4 Stars
It has been described as the Grandaddy greatest hits album that had yet been released. Lets be honest, though- this was written by many who are big Grandaddy fans. So is that blind lust, or more truthful than one would like to believe?
Well, it has its moments. There are moments where you are left with your throat swelling, chin quivering, and eyes tearing. Then, like most Grandaddy albums, well, things get a bit wierd. This time, meowing is involved.
Lets get the trivial negativity out of the way. One could very easily argue that this is a disjointed album that was overproduced, over-Grandaddy-fied, and suffered from the band breaking up along the way. There are three "filler" tracks that are just about 2 minutes and less that aren't really songs, but transitional pieces, intros/outros, or just plain "Hey, this sounds nice, lets throw this in here." There are less killer songs than on the other albums that stand out on the first listen. The Warming Sun? Not on this one. The solid pop rock album that was Sumday isn't here. And frankly, there is a lot more guitar and feedback on this album than in the past. one can read a heavy-handed disappointment with the recording industry into at least half the songs on this album. Jed is dead indeed. Cats have taken over this album from the computers.
NOW- having said that, I am in no way disinterested in this album, and one should not read too far into the above but take it with a grain of salt. Because lets be honest, Grandaddy makes some very lovely music as long as you can tolerate the bleeps, bloops, and blops. Where the Grandaddy greatest hits comes into play is that there are some amazing tracks on this album. The trio of Jeez Louise, Summer...It's Gone, and Rear View Mirror (the first three proper songs) get this album started out so sublimely, that I've yet to make it through the first 5 tracks without feeling a little melancholy that this is truly the end of Grandaddy. There must be more beauty to be born from their music. There has to be. Guide Down Denied, Elevate Myself, and This is how it always starts highlight the final 5 tracks that fade the legacy out. Elevate Myself, a manifesto of Lytle's to resist the temptation to cheapen his music, makes vitriol easy to bounce to. This Is How It Always Starts wraps up the album proper with a lament to the band amidst the chaos of breaking up. You can feel the sadness of a breakup of the band. Shangri-las (an uncredited bonus track) serves as a final sendoff, sealing the bands fate- "I'll never return to shangri-las" accompanied by the fat lady singing (I'm not making that up- an alto opera singer is the last voice one hears).
What comes as filler is actually quite nice. What Happened starts the album and gets the listener into the right mindset- "What happened to the fambly cat?" over some wonderful piano. The Animal World, despite having very little lyrics, is another oddly strong track, as is Skateboarding Saves Me Twice (that is not only the title, but the extent of the lyrics). Campershell Dreams and Disconnecty both could fit easily into the other albums.
The only clunker of a track is 50% (unless you are that turned off by the meowing during Where I'm Anymore- not making that up, either). "50% less words in 2006" being shrieked by Lytle over 'daddy doing punk isn't all that palatable, even though part of the bitterness of the song for the listener is that by the time the track arrives, you know that he isn't joking.
This album is definitely not a bad album. There is a part of me that wonders if my disappointment with some of the album isn't actually set up by the fact that Sumday was such a traditional album. There were 12 tracks, all of normal length and song structure. Have I forgotten that Underneath The Western Highway and Sophtware Slump were, really, such NONtraditional albums, with smaller tracks interspersed with the proper songs? That Sumday had less filler and was more pop oriented than before, where the first two albums were more the alternative albums that Grandaddy really is and should be? And that this lack of traditionality is what drew me to them in the first place? Maybe I have forgotten this.
Or maybe I'm just bitter that this is really the last album. That there is no more after this. That he won't be going back to shangri-las and the fat lady IS really singing. That most of these songs will probably never be performed live, at least by Grandaddy themselves. That this could be the last we hear from the lumberjack-looking skateboarders from Modesto. Sure, Jimmy plays with Earlimart now, and the drummer, Aaron, does guest spots for a number of bands, but this is it, really. Sadly....
The liner notes end like this:
Handshakes, backpats, and big hugs to too many others missed, for there has been too many years, too many memories, and too much of everything, really, with plenty of nothing too.
So I guess that's it then,
And now I will say,
farewell......and may
fortune befriend you all.
You too, Jason. You too. Don't be a stranger.
Description of Just Like the Fambly Cat
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.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
Alternative Rock CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Alternative Rock CDs
Bouncing Souls - Maniacal LaughterRelease date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Blondie - Parallel LinesRelease date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $149.98
Doors - L.A. WomanRelease date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $99.99
Amon Duul - Phallus DeiRelease date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Tangerine Dream - MelroseRelease date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Tangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine DreamRelease date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
![Ska Explosion [VHS] Image](/images/Ska-Explosion-VHS-6303381014-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ska Explosion [VHS]Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
![Little Earthquakes [VHS] Image](/images/Little-Earthquakes-VHS-6302488664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Little Earthquakes [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
Exileby Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
![Louder Than Live [VHS] Image](/images/Louder-Than-Live-VHS-6301627865-X.jpg){kind=small}
Soundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $192.68
Similar CDs
Archers of Loaf - Icky MettleRelease date: 2011-08-02; Music CD
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Grandaddy - Pretty Mess By This One BandRelease date: 1996-04-23; Music CD
Best price: $9.38
Price in other shops:
Grandaddy - Signal to Snow RatioRelease date: 1999-09-28; Music CD
Best price: $9.49
Admiral Radley - I Heart California (Dig)Release date: 2010-07-13; Music CD
Best price: $6.29
Price in other shops:
Grandaddy - Excerpts From the Diary of Todd ZillaRelease date: 2005-10-18; Music CD
Best price: $1.94
Price in other shops:
Jason Lytle - Yours Truly, The CommuterLYTLE,JASON; Release date: 2009-05-19; Music CD
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Grandaddy - Concrete DunesRelease date: 2002-02-19; Music CD
Best price: $16.81
Grandaddy - Under the Western FreewayRelease date: 2009-03-24; Published: 1997; Music CD
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Grandaddy - SumdayRelease date: 2003-06-10; Music CD
Best price: $7.59
Price in other shops:
Grandaddy - Sophtware SlumpRelease date: 2000-06-06; Music CD
Best price: $15.53