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While retro dilettantes remain stuck in the vintage boutiques, modeling anything that looks cute, Saturday Looks Good to Me has more than fashion on its mind. The band is dedicated to two specific ’60s crushes: spare, groovy soul and lilted, Bacharach-ish pop. Fred Thomas’ troupe of upper-Midwest indie stalwarts has quickly proven its love with pots ‘n’ pans percussion, econo guitar work recalling Stax-meister Steve Cropper, thrift-shop keyboards and sweet, uncontrived vocals, all wrapped in a sense of joyful appreciation, rather than historical preservation. Fitting, then, that a young group in a time warp should already have an outtakes retrospective from the far-off years of 2000-2005, Sound on Sound. What drives this set of 30 rarities, even at its most crinkly and experimental, is sheer groove and melody, highlighted by the taut girl-group lilt of “Hiding,” the snappy Northern soul tribute “Lift Me Up” and “Last Year”‘s sailing folk-pop. Thomas’ passion for the actual contents of those scratchy old records, rather than the vintage get-ups on the covers, is infectious.
