Sub Pop
The Go! Team’s first full-length album Thunder Lightning Strike catapulted the band into the international indie music circuit. Although critics and fans love their outrageous lo-fi cheerleading anthems the album was tarnished by lawsuits resulting from the use of many uncleared sound samples. These costly mistakes put future releases at risk but fortunately the band was able to move past these legal barriers to produce a new album .
On Proof of Youth the band is still using samples although more cautiously and less conspicuously with the intention of mimicking their boisterous live performances. With access to better equipment and an actual studio rather than band leader Ian Parton’s kitchen Proof of Youth harkens back to James Brown and Run DMC squawking through an old AM radio. The album is most melodic on “My World” which precedes the explosive “Titanic Vandalism.” “Keys to the City” is an anthemic collaboration with The Double Dutch Divas an old-school chanting jump-rope troupe while Chuck D from hip hop progenitors Public Enemy appears on “Flashlight Fight” — both deliberate attempts to affiliate The Go! Team with early hip hop culture.
Compared to their first album though Proof of Youth is lacklustre. The band’s choice to drastically filter and compress their sound may appeal to some but it also leads to ear fatigue. Still the band retains its sense of fun. The vocals may be saturated to the point that they are largely incomprehensible but listeners will be too busy busting moves kickworming or uprocking to notice.
