Go-getters
So it's more than slightly ironic that TV has proven to be a savior for this Chicago quartet, via breakthrough video play for the low-budget, comic-choreography clip "A Million Ways." This video imbues the group with a mass-market personality, albeit an off-kilter one, and it's given a second life to an album that, like its self-titled 2002 predecessor, seemed headed for the cut-out bins of history.
In spirit, OK Go share much with fellow Chicagoans Fountains of Wayne: Both bands combine modern guitar crunch with classic pop hooks and a relentlessly sardonic worldview. But for Oh No, OK Go jumped on the dance-rock bandwagon by seeking out Franz Ferdinand producer Tore Johansson. Calculated as the move might be, it works to perfection, giving a rhythmic insistence to tracks that might otherwise settle for pleasantly tuneful. With "Invincible," Kulash tells an ex-girlfriend about the trouble invading aliens will face when they confront the "thousand fahrenheit hot metal lights behind your eyes." Ultimately, he begs her: "Please use your powers for good."
"It's a Disaster" finds the band using every weapon at its disposal - bouncy walking bass line, high backing chirps, and thick guitar licks - and sounding very much like early, blue-album Weezer. But the record's catchiest song is "Here It Goes Again, featuring a sneering Kulash and a guitar riff eerily similar to the early '80s MTV theme snippet. It's an accidental homage from a band still trying to reconcile its hatred of a medium it can't live without.
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