The stylistics of British band The Go! Team is hard to be defined. They play indie rock, but at the same time they don't disdain Hip Hop, they like garage sound, but pop softness is not alien to them too. Actually, the term indie pop sounds quite appropriate for their music but this band has a whole bunch of additional merits that cannot be reflected in this word formula. Firstly, The Go! Team make extremely active use of cheer leaders' choral mottos. And this element is not randomness; it plays a steady and important role in their music. Secondly, the band frequently resorts to the help of brass instruments and thirdly, their music always feature a feeling of something really innovating and modern. The Go! Team released their first album Thunder, Lightning, Strike in 2005. It is hard to say that the album came as a bombshell but it was like a breath of fresh wind for many of those audio fans that crave for novelty. Just like many other popular albums of today Thunder, Lightning, Strike wasn't recorded in professional studio, all the sound manipulations were produced at home. But this fact couldn't prevent the album from becoming a Mercury Music Prize nominee in 2005.
Perhaps, The Go! Team's biggest advantage is a friendly mood and accessibility of their music. And it seems like the band's leader Ian Parton understands it quite well. The Go! Team's second album Proof Of Youth didn't lose a single drop of this quality. The album again offers material, which is situated somewhere between dance and garage rock music. The record comes easy and evokes exceptionally positive emotions. Proof Of Youth resembles its predecessor in many respects: the same slightly dirty guitars, gleeful horns, rhythmic shouts of cheerleaders and half-crooning, half-rapping vocals. The difference between the albums can be sensed rather in terms of production. In contrast to the softness and relative poppiness of Thunder, Lightning, Strike Proof Of Youth sounds more edgy. Stylistically speaking, The Go! Team shifted in the direction of rock sound a little bit. Everything else remains almost the same. If you always wanted to know how the word "fun" would sound in the language of music than Proof Of Youth may be really helpful to figure it out. Drums hit, trumpets blare and guitars clatter. It all looks really colorful even despite slightly exaggerated garage sound.
The Go! Team don't shelve the matter and start the album off with a good share of positive energy brought by their main single Grip Like A Vice. This is a very exemplifying song, simply one of the best compositions of the album. Another interesting unit is Doing It Right, cheerleaders sound especially good here. You may pay attention at Wrath Of Marcie or Keys To The City - these songs are also pretty loud and rhythmic and they sound very typical for The Go! Team. In fact, the band doesn’t turn the things down almost during the entire album. My World is the only track played without rhythm section and vocals and I Never Needed It Now So Much is the only song, which could be called ballad. All the rest is so to speak a perfect material for a DJ from indie rockers' dance club. If you are familiar with their first album than it will be easy for you to imagine such a picture. As it was said earlier, both of them sound pretty similar. But there is nothing blameworthy in it. Perhaps The Go! Team don't demonstrate progress but on the other hand they've given us another album of excellent songs, which can rise your spirits at any time.
Hide From The SunThe Rasmus make a better, harder, tighter and catchier Dead Letters. Hide From The Sun is pop and rock music, lacking in cynicism, egotistical posturing, sarcasm or irony, replacing all of the above with big emotion, romance and dreams of better days