Badman Records
2004
Catching Looks
About This Album
Washington Social Club is having a great time on Catching Looks, its Badman Recording Company debut. The D.C. quartet blasts out completely irresistible pep like "Breaking the Dawn" and "Simple Sound," where Martin Royle's giddy yelp is offset by Olivia Mancini's harmonies and guitars that ring with crystal-clear abandon. But "River and the Road" is equally effective with its watery vibraphone and acoustic ramble, and "On the Inside" and "Are You High?" exist happily as perfectly crafted guitar pop, from Evan Featherstone's chiming leads to the cynical, irascible lyrics about losing jobs and getting high. Like the New Pornographers, Washington Social Club benefits from musical hindsight, freely mixing the energy and sweetness of early-'90s indie rock with economical, punk-derived arrangements, brash new wave attitude, and endearing pop melodies heightened by the coed vocal setup. But it's the band's own combustive internal energy that really drives Catching Looks forward. "When you turned on your radio/Your radio turned me on," Royle belts at the outset of "Breaking the Dawn." "Let's do it one more time before dawn," he says, and the song builds and builds until there are feedback solos bouncing merrily off a hyperactive Mancini bassline and drums that'll pound your sad-sack fears away. It's a sound that's pretty hard to resist, since it's clear the Social Club makes it for no other reason than to capture your local club's Best Show Ever status. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 2,4,5,6,7 and 11)

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