When Shimmery Guitars and Pleasant Melodies Aren't Enough
“Well this is nice,” is a great note to start a song on. In theory, it should be a great note to start any song on. But when it comes to St. Catherine, the new Ducktails album, somehow this just isn’t the case.
This comes as something of a surprise given that Matt Mondanile’s main project, Real Estate, have made a decent name for themselves on being perfectly ‘nice’. Mondanile has never really aimed extremely high, and the best of his work manages to achieve a sort of transcendence as a result. With Real Estate’s lush, dreamlike instrumentation and tight chemistry, mere pleasantness creates its own atmosphere that's capable of transporting the listener. But when left to his own devices in this solo act, Mondanile’s pleasant calling card feels caged in and repetitive.
St. Catherine's first two tracks effectively recall the dreamier moments on Real Estate's excellent 2014 album, Atlas. Unfortunately this momentum is lost rather quickly. Starting with “Into the Sky”, each track seems to stall out after about the first 30 seconds. That pleasant - and even briefly transcendent - atmosphere that propels the beginning of the album fails to interest or engage the listener by the time the album finishes. The songwriting lacks the nuance that propels Mondanile’s best moments with Real Estate, and the compact instrumentation becomes more and more of a drag. Sundazed guitar chords only remain satisfying for so long before the uninspired drum fills and listless bass playing start to make the music feel inappropriately confined.
If you want something to listen to while you stare at the ceiling, you could probably do worse. But as an engaging album, St. Catherine more or less fails.
2.5/5