Cougar Microbes are marching in like army ants…

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from the new OK Go album. They are a group who offer the occasional moments of brilliance, for example their phenomenal videos for ‘A Million Ways’ and ‘Hear It Goes Again’ (for which we offered an impassioned defence back in April) or their red hot debut single ‘Get Over It’. Then again they are also a group who tend to pad out releases with some filler material.

Firstly, and most importantly, let us note that ‘Of the Blue Colour of The Sky’ is an album title that boasts an impressive four conjunctions in a seven-word sentence. It is also an album which sees OK Go veer away from their squeaky-clean pop structures and express themselves with a creative freedom that moderate commercial success often affords artists. It is a risk which pays off in places; the soulful vocals on ‘Skyscrapers’ are reminiscent of John Lennon’s latter work and shameless 80s throwback ‘End Love’ is a more than listenable offering.

However, despite an abundance of ideas the album is severely lacking in any sense of cohesion and often sounds like nothing more than a mix tape. Nowhere is this more evident than on ‘Last Leaf’, an ill-advised acoustic number which harks back to the obligatory 90s secret track, yet sits right in the middle of the track listing.

Understandably, trying to pull off 90s acoustic, 80s synth and 60’s psychedelic (‘Back from Kathmandu’) all in one release is a tall order. Laying to one side the likability of the band members and the individual merits of the tracks in question, OK Go’s effort sadly has the effect of leaving the listener more than a little disoriented.

‘Of the Blue Colour of the Sky’ is an album which starts off with real promise but seems to run out of steam halfway through and is glaringly lacking in instant ‘hits’. OK Go‘s knack for memorable music videos means they will probably be remembered for a long time to come, however the group who are running out of time to deliver on their exciting early promise.

The band are offering a live mp3 of ‘This Too Shall Pass’ through their website now.

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Post by Kenny the Backpacker

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TRACKS:

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass

For the two people in the world who haven’t seen it this is a bloody brilliant 2006 music video by OK Go for their single ‘Here it Goes Again’. The Holy Wikipedia tells of the 17 takes required to capture these three minutes of Trish Tsie choreographed genius. The video is an ever-so-slightly higher budget sequel to the arguably even more brilliant ‘A Million Ways’ video. Both showcase indie-pop gems mimed by bald OK Go bassist Tim Nordwind and not hairy-headed OK Go singer Damian Kulash. Both videos are static single shots. Both videos are magic.

Fast forward a couple of years to school summer holidays 2008 and I’m sitting down to watch the brilliant Wall-E at the cinema surrounded by a bunch of offloaded spoiled brats. I’ve never been one to sit comfortably through the stream of pre-feature garbage they throw at you in cinemas. Regardless, this particular cinema experience is more uncomfortable than you would expect, and it has nothing to do with the little shoeless kid whose feet smell like Billingsgate Fish Market. Some bloody bastard has filmed, as an advert, four people dancing around on treadmills to a catchy indie-pop song (‘Living on the Ceiling’ by Blancmange) and whacked a glass of orange piss-dyeing liquid into the mix. There’s even the bald protagonist for comic value. Berocca it claims makes you feel like “you, but on a good day”. Not today then. Not after witnessing daylight robbery! Well, projector light robbery at the very least. How blatant is this?

I assume, unless people are blind or senile, that this must be one of the most written about topics on the net. It has taken me a good few months to post about it as I didn’t have a blog at the time. However, I wanted to go on record and blog with my two pennies worth.

Uhum… JWT advertising agency; you shameless, uninspired, ethic-less sacks of steaming devil-turd. The fact that a “professional advertising agency” would identically reproduce an artist’s concept insofar as to use the exact same choreography while trying to pass it off as their own work is insulting enough. The fact this “professional advertising agency” would feel they could raise production value through use of montage technique points to artistic ignorance, lack of appreciation, or at best laziness. The fact that this “professional advertising agency” would use said concept to promote a pharmaceutical firm such as Bayer simply adds insult to injury.

Why, oh why is this travesty still being broadcasted onto my telly? Blog over.

-When I first saw the incriminating evidence I was incensed and made a mental note to write about this travesty myself but Kenny illustrates his indignation so well that  I thought I should share it in his words. Here is his original post on the KUTF blog.

I’ve read somewhere that there is a court case pending. Apparently one of the first intellectual property cases involving theft of dance moves.

MP3′s: