St. Catherine (album)

The album was recorded between October 2013 and January 2015 in three cities; Los Angeles, Berlin and New York City, with primary recording artist Matt Mondanile noting: "It’s the longest I’ve spent on a record, and I moved to LA when I started it. I started demoing in 2013 in the fall, and then Real Estate’s record came out in March of 2014, so I started touring a lot and would work on it slowly over time. I was traveling a lot, and I’d just moved here, and I was taking my time with it and listening to a lot of the demos."[1]

During the recording of St. Catherine, Mondanile was joined by producer Rob Schnapf in its final stages: "Rob helped mix it. When you work with someone else, you do what they think is best for the record. It's also nice to have your own input, but from a different place, I guess. I learned a little bit about mixing a record from Robb. He's just a good guy."[2]

Regarding the album's lyrical content, Mondanile noted: "I was more interested in writing about actual things in my life. I wanted to be more specific with the songs, and write about something. Instead of the past, [where] it was more abstract."[2]

The album and its title track are named after Catherine of Alexandria: "She's kind of like the Patron Saint of Knowledge and Virtue. Her story is that she saved herself for Jesus Christ, and she wouldn't sleep with anyone except for [him]. She saves her body for Jesus, and [that's] very interesting to me, for someone to devote their life to that. The song's about [being] satisfied with what you have and nothing else. You're kind of lost in the dream; or lost in the fantasy."[2]

In a mostly positive review for Pitchfork, Zach Kelly wrote: "This is Ducktails’ most discriminating and tasteful album, but the project is at its best when there's a certain amount of exploration even within its narrow parameters."[3] In another mostly positive review, Spin's Harley Brown wrote: "St. Catherine lacks the homespun production that made Ducktails’ earlier recordings so charming, but it’s still some of the most lovely indie rock music that exists today."[4]