Post by Zapp Brannigan on Feb 22, 2011 11:31:59 GMT -5
www.lifessweetbreath.com/reviews/albums/36-rolling-blackouts.html
The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts
[Memphis Industries, 2011]
73%
(For maximum effect, it is recommended that the reader do 30 push-ups, then play the sample track while doing 20 more)
If you complied with the above instructions, then you experienced in a single moment the overall effect of Rolling Blackouts’ total 40 minutes. The moment I mean is the moment in which you, out of breath and aching, placed your hands back on the floor, shoulder-width apart, and contemplated the physical agony of having to work through another set of push-ups, while Ian Parton’s exclamatory band burst from your speakers in an unrelenting barrage of jubilation and pep.
Seven years and three proper albums in, The Go! Team will just not let up. Clearly, mellowing and maturing are out of the question for a band whose ethos is built upon perpetual youth. Unfortunately, this makes Rolling Blackouts, which is as frenetic and highly calorie-burning as their thrilling 2004 début Thunder, Lightning, Strike, downright exhausting. Hence, the push-up experiment: at this point, The Go! Team’s sound has become such an exercise of endurance that you almost expect to hear a sample of Richard Simmons cheering, “You can do it! Just one more!”
However, this extended analogy has limited application; after all, pop music is inherently more fun than something your gym teacher used to make you do as a punishment. And it is not that Parton, as a songwriter, has lost any edge. The beats, guitars, trumpet blasts, even the melodic hooks are as propulsive as ever. Furthermore, it’s almost impressive that he has maintained this level of energy for so long. As before, the production is surprisingly flat (perhaps Parton is attempting to make his live instruments match the sonic quality of his samples), but in a way that conceptually works by allowing the listener a vantage point of the full picture, like a marching band in formation. And while the energy level may remain constant, the songs offer enough variation to keep the listener refreshed.
While the question, “Is it still relevant,” is usually what to ask when a group hasn’t made any changes over so many albums, with Rolling Blackouts that question feels misplaced. It is easy to appreciate what The Go! Team are continuing to do, but appreciation is a very different species from enjoyment. So, the appropriate question to ask yourself is: do I feel I can keep up for another round?
-Steve Mathewes, February 21, 2011
The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts
[Memphis Industries, 2011]
73%
(For maximum effect, it is recommended that the reader do 30 push-ups, then play the sample track while doing 20 more)
If you complied with the above instructions, then you experienced in a single moment the overall effect of Rolling Blackouts’ total 40 minutes. The moment I mean is the moment in which you, out of breath and aching, placed your hands back on the floor, shoulder-width apart, and contemplated the physical agony of having to work through another set of push-ups, while Ian Parton’s exclamatory band burst from your speakers in an unrelenting barrage of jubilation and pep.
Seven years and three proper albums in, The Go! Team will just not let up. Clearly, mellowing and maturing are out of the question for a band whose ethos is built upon perpetual youth. Unfortunately, this makes Rolling Blackouts, which is as frenetic and highly calorie-burning as their thrilling 2004 début Thunder, Lightning, Strike, downright exhausting. Hence, the push-up experiment: at this point, The Go! Team’s sound has become such an exercise of endurance that you almost expect to hear a sample of Richard Simmons cheering, “You can do it! Just one more!”
However, this extended analogy has limited application; after all, pop music is inherently more fun than something your gym teacher used to make you do as a punishment. And it is not that Parton, as a songwriter, has lost any edge. The beats, guitars, trumpet blasts, even the melodic hooks are as propulsive as ever. Furthermore, it’s almost impressive that he has maintained this level of energy for so long. As before, the production is surprisingly flat (perhaps Parton is attempting to make his live instruments match the sonic quality of his samples), but in a way that conceptually works by allowing the listener a vantage point of the full picture, like a marching band in formation. And while the energy level may remain constant, the songs offer enough variation to keep the listener refreshed.
While the question, “Is it still relevant,” is usually what to ask when a group hasn’t made any changes over so many albums, with Rolling Blackouts that question feels misplaced. It is easy to appreciate what The Go! Team are continuing to do, but appreciation is a very different species from enjoyment. So, the appropriate question to ask yourself is: do I feel I can keep up for another round?
-Steve Mathewes, February 21, 2011