The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts
The Go! Team have never rocked my world, particularly, but they rarely make music I fail to enjoy. Â Their boisterous, brassy TV theme pop tunes have a kind of carefree verve to them that simply bypasses my No Fun in Pop snob filter, irrespective of the fact that I don’t really engage with their albums in a particularly in-depth way.
When they start rapping, I must confess, I do start to clench up just a little bit, but that is just a style of vocal delivery which I have never liked and there is not much which can be done about it.
Otherwise, the chimes, the seventies dance party vocals, the stylish, but not too serious aspect to the music just gives this album a good vibe. Â There are tunes like Apollo Throwdown which could be from any Go! Team album, ones like the opener T.O.R.N.A.D.O., which has a much harsher edge to it than I am used to from them, and then some glistening shimmer pop, reminiscent of Saint Etienne. Â This variety, as much as the brevity of the songs themselves (thirteen in forty minutes), keeps the album fresh, even though this doesn’t particularly sound like a band ruthlessly challenging itself at every opportunity.
A lot of people complain about there being too much music out there, from the perspective of not getting to hear all of it. Â I find the issue to be slightly different: there’s so much music out there that you need never stray away from things you already know you like. Â That’s why things like the radio are important, because it is a medium more likely than any other I can think of to play you songs outside of your comfort zone.
The Go! Team are a band who I would probably never listen to of my own volition, but who I always enjoy when someone else puts them on the stereo, and this push and pull at the fringes of our music taste is something we are all in danger of surrendering in the current, highly specific channels of media consumption.
The Go! Team – Apollo Throwdown
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Me likey!
I like The Go! Team, in particular the harmonica solo on Bottle Rocket.
Yes Dylan, but that was some time ago, now wasn’t it. Tsk tsk.
Heard this on the Guardian website last week. It didn’t really grab me in the same way their first record did.
Well as a less than committed fan I can’t tell you how much they’re really pushing it from one album to the next – that usually goes hand in hand with a sense of urgency which makes albums more compelling.
You pretty much nailed my feelings on this album. I find it funny how much they’ve been criticized for not re-inventing the wheel on this album–by the same people who slobber over the likes of Arcade Fire and Bright Eyes and artists who weren’t even doing anything that original to begin with (much less with each successive record).
The new Bright Eyes album is on my list for the train journey on Sunday – any good?