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Album Review: The Go! Team's "Rolling Blackouts" Is A Rolling Sound

Jessica Escobedo |
February 2, 2011 | 2:35 a.m. PST

Staff Reporter

Fans should get excited about The Go! Team’s latest album.

After nearly a four-year hiatus, their  third album “Rolling Blackouts” creates a fresh collage of hip-hop, pop, indie rock and funk. Still preserving their playful carnival sound, the rambunctious melodies makes listening to this one just as entertaining as attending ones of their live shows.

Opening with “T.O.R.N.A.D.O.,” the album launches with an explosion of fortitude emanating from Ninja’s rapping and heavy brass. The mood is then softened by the poppy “Secretary Song,” featuring Deerhoof’s Satoni Matsuzaki, almost taking you rollerblading with an innocent heart in the 70s.

Ninja returns in “Apollo Throwdown” and immediately brings back that electro hip-hop.

Songs like “Back Like 8 Track” and “Voice Yr Choice” sound akin to the sextet’s older albums, and “Rolling Blackouts” gives an easy listen to a more familiar indie rock sound, similar to The Raveonettes.

As rambunctious as most of the album may be, there are some tender moments in instrumental “Yosemite’s Theme,” a peaceful, video game perusal in “Super Triangle,” and a pompous sass from “Bust-Out Brigade.”

With that said, “Rolling Blackouts” does not present anything too new to our ears, but a subtle improvement of 2007’s forgotten “Proof of Youth.”

Though efforts were made to diversify the vocals in the album, Matsuzaki and Best Coast Bethany Cosentino’s vocals were so similar to Ninja’s high pitched voice that shifts in singers are almost unnoticeable. Moreover, the band’s constant fast tempo in every song undercuts the album from streaming as a piece of dynamic music.

It isn’t to say that Ian Parton’s composition isn’t genius. Each track could easily stand alone, if not several segments of each song. Fusing many musical elements, including the nostalgia evoked by “Yosemite’s Theme”, Parton effectively executes a mix of music genres and eras, providing an easy listen for all occasions. Consequently, while it is true that the audience of today has evolved since the time of Thunder, Lightning, Strike, it’s difficult to get tired of The Go! Team’s classic sound.

Reach Jessica here.



 

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