Go Team? More Like...No Team?

Yeah, weak joke, I know.

You know that feeling when you go into something, expecting to enjoy it, and then you come out with a blank face and a brain furiously trying to pinpoint why you weren’t the least bit pleased? It’s like when I saw the Simpsons movie…the buzz was great, the previews were funny enough, but after watching most of the 6th and 7th seasons over the summer, the entire movie could be described as, “meh.”

So after having played Thunder, Lightning, Strike to death, and Junior Kickstart an embarrassing amount of times, I’ve been excitedly expecting anything new from the Go! Team. And when Grip Like a Vice and Wrath of Marcie came out, I nodded my head and thought, “This is pretty good, no complaints here.” And then when I heard the album had leaked (a few days late actually, Kohls has a knack for sucking out one’s sense of time and events) I immediately jumped onto my favorite completely legitimate downloading source, and of course, went about all of the most polite and proper ways to get a hold of the album. Immediately I jumped to the unknown songs, and that sinking feeling began to creep in. I’m not going to lie, my favorite aspect of Thunder, Lightning, Strike was the strange mix of 70’s retro, cheerleading, and the theme from Charlie Brown (c’mon, just listen to Feelgood By Numbers and you’ll know what I mean). So after listening to Fake ID, I wondered why my beloved Go! Team sounded like a boring Japanese chick-rock band. On Titanic Vandalism, I wondered what the point of rapping is if no one, and I mean no one, will ever be able to understand whatever it is you’re saying (and whether or not the vandalism is indeed titanic).

Every time I listen to the album, a voice in the back of my head is constantly wondering, “Why aren’t I enjoying this more? It’s the Go! Team, the creators of some of the catchiest tunes in the last ten years…there must be something I’m missing.” But in the end, I’ve come to terms with the fact that Proof of Youth is the very definition of a sophomore slump. The Go! Team tries to go into a few different directions, what with the heightened emphasis on rap and political themes, or at least I think so, given titles like Universal Speech, Fake ID, and Keys to the City. And they try to hold onto the old instrumental numbers that worked so well in the past, like on Patricia’s Moving Picture, but it sounds half-assed to be honest. It just doesn’t click. It’s not like the entire album is a disaster, as previously mentioned, Grip Like a Vice and The Wrath of Marcie work because they’re catchy, and because the production isn’t a disaster, like it is on most of the album. I can actually understand the lyrics and the music itself doesn’t devolve into a convoluted mess of notes and chords without any defining structure. Doing It Right has a great chorus and it retains the kooky kinda-70’s vibe that borders on the edge of parody but works so well in the end.

So in the end, because I still love the Go! Team, I’ll give the album a 60 out of 100. Think of it as a D…it’s still passing, but just barely.


Please, oh please listen to this instead.