The album art of The Go! Team's highly anticipated new album, Proof of Youth, is a bright collage incorporating pictures of a dirt-biker, a rabid wolf, a marching band member and two women wearing cat masks. What could this whimsical potpourri of images possibly mean?
If you find yourself asking this question, you've probably never heard The Go! Team. For those familiar with the band, such an album cover is a blatant reflection of the band's crude pastiche sound. And when I say "blatant," I mean that the collage is the picture conjured up when listening to The Go! Team's 2004 debut album, Lightning, Thunder, Strike.
But now that The Go! Team have literally and figuratively (you'll see the distinction soon enough) drawn out their sound, their subtlety has been lost and the romance ruined. Proof of Youth's album art parallels the band’s loss of creativity as they try too hard to recreate the sound of Lightning, Thunder, Strike instead of taking a step in a new direction. Proof of Youth stresses and dwells on a sound that was novel and creative on their first album, but becomes redundant and conspicuous on their latest.
After that long-winded and somewhat abstract preamble, let's take a tangible look at where Proof of Youth fails to impress, and at times, simply disappoints.
Proof of Youth is by all means a good album; anyone listening to it without having heard Lightning, Thunder, Strike will fall in love with the frantic hand claps, the obscure lo-fi samples, the cheerleader rap of frontwoman Ninja and the throwback melodies of the band's brainchild, Ian Parton. Album opener "Grip Like a Vice" evokes the karate-chop energy of Lightning, Thunder, Strike's opener "Panther Dash," and even approximates the frenzied timbre of "The Power is On," but its production lacks the spontaneity of both. "Keys to the City" brings the familiar drumstick count-in, Ninja’s under-mixed vocals and the '70s car-chase brass section, and even though it is one of Proof of Youth's best songs, it still feels stylistically hackneyed.
And this recurs throughout the album, as most of the good songs on Proof of Youthare reminiscent of better songs on Lightning, Thunder, Strike. At times, Proof of Youthsounds like the tracks that didn't make it onto Lightning, Thunder, Strike — the style is the same, but the songs just aren't as good.
But one thing that Proof of Youth has to offer that Lightning, Thunder, Strike doesn't is an array of guest appearances. Public Enemy's Chuck D lays verses down on "Flashlight Fight" and the Double Dutch Divas sing on "Keys to the City." Also contributing to Proof of Youth is the Rapper's Delight Club and Marina of Bonde de Rol?
