You have to wonder if Ian Parton ever regrets naming his recording project/collective the Go! Team, let alone affixing it with an exclamation point for guaranteed bonus exuberance. Few bands have gone to such great lengths to forge a connection between their name and their sound. Since its inception, the group has reconstructed sounds that are all about inspiring motion-- cheerlander chants, rollerskate jams, breakdance beats, cop-show chase themes, 90s mosh-pit rock-- into a brass-blasted wall of squall. But the side effect of constant movement is fatigue-- in this case, on the band itself, which charged through its 2007 sophomore release Proof of Youth with the same gusto heard on its dazzingly 2004 debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike. Compounding the exhaustion on Proof of Youth is Parton's unwavering deference for high-pitch-frequency productions that sound like they're blaring out of an old Zenith, tenuously walking the line between ingratiating and just plain grating.
From the outset, Rolling Blackouts provides little relief: opener "T.O.R.N.A.D.O" announces itself with all the subtlety of an air-raid siren, as lead MC Ninja wages a losing battle against a torrential blitzkrieg of horn breaks and scratch effects. The song essentially serves the same function as the opening themes to the 80s action shows Parton was raised on: it's the Go! Team advertising itself, an instant reacquainting device to remind you of what you're tuning into. But thankfully, Parton proves much more willing to change up the script. His cut-and-paste aesthetic is still very much in effect; he just uses it to assemble more varied and satisfying songs.
There's always been a latent appreciation of 60s girl-group pop buried beneath the Go! Team's hyper-funk ballast, and that quality is given more time and space to shine here, whether in the Motown-by-way-of-Tokyo sweep of "Secretary Song" or the "Ready Steady Go!"-worthy "Ready to Go Steady". Most successful of all is the band's wonderful collaboration with Best Coast's Bethany Cosatino on the fuzz-pop delight "Buy Nothing Day". But even the typical jump-rope exercises ("Apollo Throwdown", "The Running Range") are leavened by acoustic-based sonics and congenially melodic choruses. Meanwhile, Parton's sound world now absorbs everything from endearingly schmaltzy soap-opera soundtracks ("Yosemite Theme") to Yo La Tengo-style dream-pop reveries (the title track). Of course, "Back Like 8 Track" closes the album by returning to the group's familiar schoolyard terrain. Hopefully, Rolling Blackouts marks the moment in the Go! Team's career where the idea of moving forward becomes less of a literal concept and more an artistic one.
