The Go-Go's
God Bless The Go-Go's

THE REVIEW

"God Bless The Go-Go's", the fourth and final chapter of the Californian band led by the voice of Belinda Carlisle.

In 2001, after a reunion tour in 1999 and various other attempts at new sessions throughout the '90s, the Go-Go's manage to put together their comeback album with their signature surf-pop punk style that had set them apart twenty years earlier. The lead single, "Unforgiven", co-written with Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, is not a great piece really and travels on fairly conventional tracks for the band without too many surprises. Better is the rockier opener "La-La Land", dedicated to their city of angels, a pure Go-Go's style track full of rhythm and frenzy. This album is a compendium, the last surf punk testament for a group that has managed to write its name in that scene and achieve a lot; the whole album is a callback to the three LPs of the '80s with quotes and homages to their own sound and with some nostalgic tears falling over their history closing with the very Beatles-like "Daisy Chain", complete with a reversed tape coda and Mellotron. Carlisle's voice is still the same, gritty and abrasive, and has returned to being more genuine without the over-polishing of her solo albums, Valentine/Shock's rhythm section remains a trademark and Caffey/Wiedlin's harmonies are impeccable. Tracks like "Apology", "Vision of Nowness", and "Stuck In My Car" directly hark back to the golden era of the early '80s without much difficulty, while "Here You Are" with its cello and percussive backdrop is closer to solo Carlisle. Overall, it is a well-crafted work that shows the more mature age of the members and lacks the youthful brash sparkle, the party girls from long nights in a seedy Los Angeles compared to the France where Belinda took refuge in the early '00s. The cover, featuring the five representing the five virtues (Mercy, Purity, Chastity, Honesty, and Modesty) attracts criticism and provokes the Catholic community in the U.S., but after all, they are still grown-up bad girls and there must be some spice.

In 2016, the band reunited for a farewell tour, Katy Valentine was no longer there but the desire to make a bit of noise was still intact on the verge of their sixties.