''Just Like the Fambly Cat'' is the fourth studio album by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Grandaddy Grandaddy is an American indie rock band from Modesto, California. The group was formed in 1992, and featured Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, Kevin Garcia and Tim Dryden, until Garcia's death in 2017 following a stroke. After several ...

. It was released on May 9, 2006 by record label V2. The album reached No. 171 on the ''Billboard'' 200, No. 10 on the

Top Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by ''Billboard'' magaz ...

chart and No. 50 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. It was well received by music critics.

Content

The album's title is a reference to frontman

Jason Lytle Jason Lytle ( ; born March 26, 1969) is an American musician best known for his work in the indie rock group Grandaddy. The group split in 2005, and Lytle continued to release music as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians. Gra ...

's desire to leave his home town of

Modesto, California Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton- ...

without any fuss, stating that cats will "do that, almost out of respect and not wanting to put people out ... because when the family cat dies, he doesn't make a big deal about it ... He just disappears".

Recording

Lytle spent eighteen months recording the album at a studio in

Modesto Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton- ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Regarding the recording process, Lytle noted "During the one-and-a-half years that I recorded this album I lost my girl, my friends, my home, estranged my family, got sober, got wasted ... I got too many things going on. The band breaking up only became a reality at the end of the recording. Many songs that people claim to be directly related to the band are actually directly related to other things I had going on." The album does not feature any of the other band members, apart from Aaron Burtch who performed "most of" the album's drums. Lytle chose to credit the album to the band, stating "It's much more natural to imagine a band rocking out together than it is to imagine one frustrated guy at 4:30am in his boxer shorts and messed up hair, slaving over the same keyboard part for four-and-a-half hours. I recorded and wrote all of the music and the parts utI didn't want to distract the listener from whatever they needed to think when they heard the music."

Release

''Just Like the Fambly Cat'' was released on May 9, 2006, by record label V2. The album reached No. 171 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 10 on the

chart, as well as No. 50 on the

Reception

Critical response to the album was positive.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

reviewer Tim Sendra called the album "a fine epitaph". ''

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'' gave it three stars, as did ''

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'', who called it "equal parts bang and whimper". ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' commented on the albums "more personal" lyrics and called the album "a worthy coda to a woefully under-appreciated band". ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' described it as "a gorgeous album that should be admired much like a fleeting sunny afternoon or a sad foreign movie viewed without subtitles". '' The Stranger'' gave it a three-star review, noting an "air of melancholic finality" and calling the songwriting "the best it's been since ''The Sophtware Slump''". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called it "a sad record ... but an inspiring one too".

Track listing

Personnel

; Grandaddy *

– vocals, all instruments,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

, artwork * Aaron Burtch – drums ; Additional personnel * Kevin Garcia – backing vocals * Rusty Miller – backing vocals * Lauren Goldfarb – dialogue (track 1) * Lucea Legnini – dialogue (track 1) ; Technical * Lucky Lew –

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* Dave Trumfio – mixing * Greg Calbi – mastering * Jen Murse – digital finesse * Adrian Mendoza – "photo help"

References

External links

* {{Authority control Grandaddy albums 2006 albums V2 Records albums