Catherine's first full album shows the band starting to step away a little more from the inevitable Pumpkins comparisons, though there's still plenty of droning stun guitar to make the connections clear enough. "Saint" might as well be an early B-side from Corgan and his crew, at least except for the vocals. In the end, though, Jendon's less overbearing vocal work, woven into the mix rather than cutting through it, helps the group stand apart more than might be thought. Lyrically, the songs aren't much to completely write home about: opening cut "Songs About Girls" tends to say it all, and images of post-shoegaze bliss and love are the rule rather than the exceptions. Still, Jendon never embarrasses himself, and the focus is always on the music first and foremost. The gentle, string-touched "2 AM" is one of his and the band's finest moments, suiting the timeframe of the title to a T and happily embracing the joys of both a softer approach and an inspiring chorus. The sweetly psych/indie pop float of "Her Pills" perhaps pushes all the particular relationship/drugs tropes too much to the fore, but Jendon's nice falsetto skips around the triple guitar attack of the group well, never too lax or too overbearing. Other winners crop up throughout
Sorry! -- the slow drone of "Dollhouse," the acoustic/electric chime and shimmer of "Flawless," the concluding build and sprawl of "Waterfall" -- making for a sharp overall conclusion to
Sorry! Credit has to go to the band for a surprising but well-executed cover,
the Bee Gees' early hit, "Every Christian Lionhearted Man." Rocking it harder than the Australians ever did, Catherine keeps the strange melody and sweet harmonies at the center of it all, along with some acoustic guitar breaks for effect. ~ Ned Raggett