In Stores Now: Rolling Blackouts by the Go! Team

Illustration titled "The Smash" from Table Tennis and How to Play It, With Rules by M. J. G. Ritchie and Walter Harrison, 1902

There are plenty of artists out there that make good albums, but you only really need to own one of them - I was SO sure the Go! Team was one of those artists. 2004's Thunder, Lightning, Strike was bound to be a unique animal, created by Ian Parton in his parents' UK home, a homemade Frankenstein's-monster stitched together from bits of Bollywood, cheer routines, old-school rap, and Guaraldi soundtracks. When the record was a success (deservedly - it's one of the most joyful records I've ever heard), Parton had to build a real-life version of that musical fantasy, so he turned the Go! Team into a functional touring band. Dragging the Go! Team out of the bedroom fantasy world into the real world can be a dicey proposition for a project's long-term viability and, after reading some of the reviews of the Go! Team's second album, 2007's Proof of Youth, I decided that it must not have panned out and turned my attentions elsewhere.

Which is why I am so surprised that Rolling Blackouts is such a fun and fresh-sounding album, almost equaling the debut in energy and surpassing it in scope and melody. The key to this album's excellence is in the outside help that has been brought in to give the songs a little extra "zazz!" - for instance, the two best hip-hop-flavored tracks on Rolling Blackouts ("Voice Yr Choice" and "Apollo Throwdown") are the ones that feature Florida MC Dominique Unique Young. The album's best tracks are those that drop large parts of the Go! Team formula in favor of sing-song girl-pop - French home-recorder Lispector mixes '90s twee-pop with the Shangri-Las on "Ready to Go Steady", Deerhoof's Satomi Matsuzaki adds her chirpy vocals to the bouncy "Secretary Song", and Best Coast's Beth Consentino puts her indie drawl to good use on the album's best track, the pop whirlwind of "Buy Nothing Day". Consentino also turns up later in the album on the title track, a MBV-style heavy-guitar number that is one of the album's other great curve balls.

The problem with Rolling Blackouts (and it's a minor one) is that, without exception, the tracks without any guest stars fall a little flat. The album opener "T.O.R.N.A.D.O." is pretty awful, frankly, using horn samples in the most irritating way possible, and the Team's resident MC, Ninja, doesn't really help matters with her rapping. The two unremarkable instrumentals that bookend "Buy Nothing Day" make that track stand out, but they also make it stand alone, where it should be rubbing shoulders with the album's other great songs. Also, it would be nice to see the girl-pop songs blend in a little better with the other more familiar Go! Team elements, but I'm hoping that the band will keep refining their approach - at this point, they've proven that they're not a one-album wonder.

"Buy Nothing Day" by the Go! Team