Rating:

(Columbia, 2005) The American release of The Go! Team’s debut differs only slightly from its import version, which was nominated for a Mercury Prize, and both have received considerable amounts of critical acclaim. The amount and degree of that praise is really quite baffling. Some critics make Thunder, Lightning, Strike out to be a work of happy genius, the ultimate party record and a fantastic genre bending mix of sampling, rock, hip-hop, big-beat electronic, 70s television music, and cheerleading that can do no wrong. Granted, all those elements are present in the music on the album, but they don’t mesh as well as the band would have liked them too. The cheerleading is creepy at every turn, and the production aesthetic imported from 1970s television is awful. Nearly every song sounds tinny, like it’s coming out of a television from thirty years in the past, and the vocals all sound like ambient recordings. Obviously, this is what the band intended, because there’s no way the album would be produced and mixed this way unless it were on purpose. That doesn’t mean it was a good choice, however; not all artistic decisions make good art. There are a few tracks (”Panther Dash,” We Just Won’t Be Defeated,” and Junior Kickstart”) that are genuinely enjoyable in spite of the bad mixing, but far too many otherwise pleasant songs are dragged down.

1.  Panther Dash
2.  Ladyflash
3.  Feelgood By Numbers
4.  The Power Is On
5.  Get It Together
6.  We Just Won't Be Defeated
7.  Junior Kickstart
8.  Air Raid Gtr
9.  Bottle Rocket
10. Friendship Update
11. Hold Yr Terror Close
12. Huddle Formation
13. Everyone's A V.I.P. To Someone

Buy album

– Kevin

This 15-beetsreview was posted on February 11th, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.