Ok Go
Oh No

THE REVIEW

Eh yeah. Ok Go. Let's go. Towards where, no one knows. It could be an "Ok Go" aimed at conquering the coveted palm of the best alternative band. Or maybe not. After all, the ideas are there, the look too, adventure is always appealing, so why not set off. Let's set off. It starts with a couple of EPs: the first in 1998, the others follow. But just two or three songs, to practice. It's 2003, the year the real plea is heard: first self-titled album, gold, incense, and myrrh from the Three Magi of critique, with a positive reception from the public as well. But something changes. The naive boys lose a bit of their drive, realizing that, after all, the world is a bit too big to conquer entirely. And certainly, the music world does not help, not at all. The fact is, one day they find themselves in a friend's basement. They play with heart, with eagerness. But all around them, in full Vodafone style, music is made for bisnes (or business, depending on pronunciation). For money. For fame. For droves and droves of fans drooling, the kind who would build a palace with bare hands just for you. Well, not all that glitters is gold. And the boys must have been somewhat disillusioned, seeing the famous saying come true. And so, day by day, the band starts questioning what joy there is in playing when the music world isn't all the good everyone talks about. In these situations, friendship prevails. But despondency remains. The fact is, they get back to work, subdued yet determined. The album is ready, set to be released. But then, an unfortunate event: Bush gets reelected in the presidential elections. For them, this means one thing: damn it. In a hurry, the provisional album title is changed. And thus, the band led by Damian Kulash Jr. returns in 2006. Obviously, the album can't be called "Fuck", it's unsightly, vulgar (of course...), so they settle for a laconic yet powerful "Oh No".

Let's clear one thing immediately: despite the sudden dominance of harsh reality over false golden dreams, Ok Go haven't changed their sound even a bit from the previous album. The riffs might be a bit more mature, but the difference is practically negligible. All the songs are very easy to digest, a nice alternative rock occasionally tainted with a bit of funk or country touches. But let's take it easy and examine the album tracks. The second work from the Chicago band opens with a bang: "Invincible" (which opens with a fantastic noise of dragging amplifiers) features quite a freshness and originality in sound, coupled with a clever odd rhythm and high catchiness, making it the best track of the album. As if to say: to-create-a-good-song-do-we-always-need-complexity-super-sonic-riffs-or-other-layers? Absolutely not. Here the riffs are elementary, predominantly based on Timothy Nordwind's bass, yet from the first listen, they captivate and are easy to listen to. Really well done. The second track is titled "Do What You Want" and slightly deviates from the usual atmosphere of the band, as it opens with an anxious roll from Dan Konopka, followed by Andrew Duncan drawing inspiration from Seventies atmospheres (with rhythms easily referable to Led Zeppelin), producing fiery chords that make a great impression, accompanied by Kulash's voice, always adept at knowing the right moment to raise the vocal pitch and, consequently, the song's tempo. A very good composition, even if a bit disconcerting.
We arrive at the third piece, "Here It Goes Again": a slight misstep from the Ok Go. The song is indeed too light: the funk undertones, joint riffs with Kulash's monosyllables, or the overall choruses characterizing the refrain contribute very little. Something more would be preferable: as a commercial single, it's almost perfect, but in an album created for the alternative crowd, this seems a bit out of place. After three minutes or a little less, we move to "A Good Idea At The Time": another truly noteworthy piece, where Kulash's voice roughens and the background nods to the best Flaming Lips while maintaining a solid '70s orientation. The band's originality, in this case, lies in assembling these elements in a very personal way, creating a possible hit that doesn't disappoint anyone (also interesting is the muted trumpet ending the song). The fifth track is "Oh Lately It's So Quiet": it opens on Duncan's sweet guitar, followed by an almost R'n'B percussion background, and accompanied by Kulash's fantastic falsetto, who even indulges in having his fellow merry-makers do the choruses during a pause between verses. The song remains more or less relaxed throughout: notable is a very simple rusty-toned solo by Nordwind around two minutes in, adding a bit of motion to an otherwise uneventful and not particularly praiseworthy piece.
It picks up again with "It's A Disaster", a lively piece with vaguely swing rhythms that relies on the alchemy between solo voice and collective choirs. The chorus is truly beautiful, dominated by the voices of Nordwind, Kulash, and Duncan, irregularly punctuated by Konopka. No room for virtuosity: a song that reaches the listener directly with an extremely simple rhythmic scheme, a brief solo that adds nothing to the band's potential but confirms all the good impressions from the previous tracks. We arrive at the first official single extracted from the album, the already historic, the cult "A Million Ways". A very pleasant song, opened by a solo guitar and followed by Damian Kulash Jr.'s hushed voice often falling into sporadic falsetto. Especially appreciated is the delightful funk contribution from the bass, which is at its best and the well-marked rhythm that entices the public to hit the dance floor to move those flabby cheeks. A slight slip in style is noted -and it's worth mentioning the band, has got style to sell- towards the song's midpoint, when a background chorus gives way to a vocal part without instrumental accompaniment, a bit raw. But overall, who cares: "Oh darlin', you're a million ways to be cruel..." The eighth track is "No Sign Of Life": interesting opening, with an acoustic guitar soon fading to leave space for bloodier riffs by the inspired Nordwind. Kulash, however, is less inspired this time: his voice struggles to stand out over Konopka's rhythmic accompaniment and is often drowned out by overly aggressive and slightly reckless chords from Duncan. It's somewhat disappointing not to feature any guitar solo in this piece: only the closing partly satisfies, but it's not a true solo since the band sings over it. The ninth composition is "Let It Rain": another slowly progressing song, with slightly gospel influences, where the guitar harmoniously fits with a revitalized Kulash (the "Hallelujah, hallelujah" was missed in this album : D). The drums focus on bolstering parts that are overly sugary or unnecessarily repetitive, but they are sweet and highly listenable. And here comes, for a slow song, another decidedly lively one: the shortest on the album, "Crash The Party", two minutes and twenty-five seconds of pure diversion, with the guitars roaring back to life and the band members, freed from the slightly ungrateful task of turning an alternative rock band into a minimalist band, exploding in choruses with an almost circus-like flavor. The whole reveals to be a bet won ahead of time.
The next track ("Television, Television"), however, is decidedly subdued, a fairly fast song with prominent drums and slightly washed-out guitars, that truly stand out only in the refrain (sung, as usual, by the whole band). The twelfth song, titled "Maybe, This Time", starts with a vaguely ominous progression, with Nordwind's bass ruling solo, rarely interrupted by sporadic guitar chords and overshadowed by Kulash's subdued voice. Keyboards also appear in this piece, sharing the background with Nordwind (notice the "pla-pla-pla"?). Different than usual, somewhere between a happy song and a slow song, a hybrid perfected in the album. Everything closes with the somber "The House Wins", significantly infused with electronic samples intended to distort Duncan's and Nordwind's riffs, with the drums marking the tempo like a band and Kulash's voice sounding despondent. A good idea is incorporating a piano in the middle section of the song.

Well, I've finished my description of the album. If you want to listen to something different from the commercial crap labeled MTV, and something not too complex at the same time, this album is for you. Otherwise, patience. Re...

No, no, wait a moment. The requiem can wait. I forgot something that theoretically should have been the centerpiece of the review. Or maybe I left it for last on purpose... The videos. Ladies and gentlemen, anonymous and registered users as well as editors, no one, I mean no one, and I reiterate no one, can claim to listen to Ok Go if they have never seen a video from the group. One word: unforgettable! Unforgettable! Unforgettable both for a 4-year-old and a 90-year-old (I feel very much like Wanna Marchi at this moment). Why? Because the videos contain the essence of the band itself: their way of presenting themselves, their way of being, their personality. And whether this is conveyed traditionally (as in "Invincible", where the group sings and plays as various objects explode) or in a less orthodox way (in "A Million Ways", a video costing more or less 20 dollars, where the four engage in a dance in a garden, or in "Here It Goes Again", the most hilarious, adopting the technique from "A Million Ways" by running and doing stunts on treadmills), the message always hits the mark. And it doesn't even take too much effort. Want a fact to understand it? I'll give you two: the video for "A Million Ways", which started as a viewing strictly reserved for friends, received approximately 700,000 downloads from the band's official site in one week, but also the downloads of other videos, which are among the most downloaded on YouTube. And since you can't miss them, and since I want to make your life easier, here are all the links to the official singles:

VIDEO OF "A MILLION WAYS"

VIDEO OF "INVINCIBLE"

VIDEO OF "HERE IT GOES AGAIN"

Well, requiem.