In a world wrought with replication it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid gravitating to a specific item, event, person, etc. simply because they go against the flow. For Chicago alt rock powerhouse quartet, OK Go, they are the exception to the trepidation.
These guys certainly don’t rush things. Releasing an album in spans of anywhere between three and five years apart, the heavens have opened up and delivered their latest, Hungry Ghosts. The release of this record honestly only accomplishes three things and does these things well, it proves OK Go do what they want, how they want and they do it very well.
By the time I was able to pull myself away from the album and compose a thought I realized the warmth and fascination finely crafted by OK Go and Oh No is as prominent in Ghosts as it has ever been. The electronic fundamentals combining with airy vocals and driving beats became like regrouping with a long lost friend; sans “C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips.” Most may already be familiar with “Writing’s On the Wall” (first single) and the Go-ian video to accompany the song, but this is only a sliver of the successful creations found on the album. The funky “I’m Not Through” errs on the side of Bee Gees, the stutter-stop “Another Set Of Issues”, followed with the driving “Turn Up the Radio,” is a one-two-punch that is definitively OK Go. Short of listing each track, I can say confidently that if you only pick up one album in the near future, make it Hungry Ghosts.
At times you’ll be dancing, at others you’ll be in subdued contemplation, but on the whole you’ll be in love with some of the best OK Go to date. If you’re like me, you’ve probably felt a disconnect with OK Go in recent years dwelling on the early stuff longing for the glory days. Well, we can’t recreate what made us fall in love with the band; we can only find happiness in the sound that goes against the flow without pretense. And am I smiling ear to ear thanks to electronic gospel of Hungry Ghosts.
Greg is a regular contributor and co-founder at Nanobot. He still struggles with the words “C-C-Cinnamon lips and candy kisses / On my tongue, fun!”