Imagine my pleasant surprise when the reissue of the long out of print vinyl version of the Saturday Looks Good To Me album Every Night was announced, and even pleasant surprise might be underselling just how excited I was to hear that the LP was being reissued because I had been searching for this format of the album for quite a while; you see, back whenEvery Night was initially released I was horribly poor and unable to afford both formats of the record (CD and vinyl) which was terribly unfortunate as the two versions contain different musical arrangements, mixes, musicians, and singers than the counterpart format. Years went by without my hearing these alternate versions of the songs as the concept of hearing them drifted on and off my radar as something to track down (usually increasing when I was on a kick of listening to the band) until finally the vinyl reissue of Every Night showed up on my doorstep.
Popping this sucker on my record player immediately shocked me as the familiar female vocals of “Since You Stole My Heart” were replaced on the LP version by the cool and laid back vocal delivery of Fred Thomas, and I quickly realized how different the mood and tenor of these songs could change by simply changing the vocalist while at the same time cementing how much I enjoy these tunes. “Until The World Stops Spinning”, “When The Party Ends” (the vocals are awesome and this is a great example of how the music differs from the two formats as this is now an electrified romp rather than the snappy mostly acoustic number on the CD version), “Empty Room” (love the vocal hook with this up tempo number), and the toe tapping “Dialtone” are definite highlights of this set and “The Girl’s Distracted” is another one of my favorites from the album (this is a full on duet that just is awesome) and a staple on nerdy mix tapes that I make.
Regardless of the differences between the two versions of Every Night, one thing becomes abundantly clear and that is the masterful song writing and awesome retro feel of the music while staying extremely catchy and infectious; without being overly gushing about the record, it is absolutely a stellar release from Saturday Looks Good To Me and not a record that fans of kitschy indie pop would want to miss. Every Night is part of my personal holy trilogy of Saturday Looks Good To Me records and this version only cements that high regard for its twelve pop tunes.
