Albums of the Month for February 2023: Young Fathers and The Go! Team


Welcome to the new format of album reviews on Panorama of the Mountains!  Last year I wrote about 40 reviews in the album of the week format but felt I was rushing to listen to and review new albums.  I’m hoping this year I’ll have more time to listen to albums multiple times and then provide more expansive thoughts on them in my reviews.  Let’s kick this off with two of my perennial favorite bands Young Fathers and The Go! Team.

Album: Heavy Heavy
Artist: Young Fathers
Release Date: February 3, 2023
Label: Ninja Tune
Favorite Tracks:

  • I Saw
  • Sink or Swim
  • Holy Moly
  • Be Your Lady

Thoughts: Young Fathers, the trio from Edinburgh, Scotland, return after a five year absence to follow up their terrific album Cocoa Sugar (#234 on my all time favorite albums list).  Young Fathers have never been content with one genre and work a lot of styles – funk, industrial, hip hop, soul, pop, electronica, punk – into their sonically dense recordings.  A number of the songs are built with chant-like singing over a drone with the tension building over the course of the track.  Two of the band’s members have African heritage so the African influence is noticeable but this music should not be mistaken for an African style.  The ancestry of this music is as undefinable as the genre.  The album starts of well and I think the final three tracks are the best part, but it sags a bit in the middle.  Then again, the tracks and the album are quite short so you won’t have time to complain.  On the whole this album doesn’t hold up to Cocoa Sugar, but it’s still a great release by a thoughtful and innovative band.
Rating: ***1/2


Album: Get Up Sequences Part Two
Artist: The Go! Team
Release Date: February 3, 2023
Label: Memphis Industries
Favorite Tracks:

  • Look Away, Look Away
  • Divebomb
  • Stay and Ask Me in a Different Way
  • The Me Frequency

Thoughts:

Britain’s quirky indie pop/plunderphonics act The Go! Team return with the follow-up to last year’s Get Up Sequences Part One.  The band’s Ian Parton describes this album as a “global fruit salad,” grabbing the good parts of musical styles from around the world to incorporate in their upbeat but lofi sound.  Politically, the album is a reaction to Brexit, letting the world in.  But you may be too busy dancing to spend to much time on the message.  The guest artists roster is long and includes West African girl group Star Feminine Band, Indian Bollywood playback singer Neha Hatwar, Kokubo Chisato from J-Pop indie band LucieToo, Detroit rapper IndigoYaj, Hilarie Bratset (formerly of Apples in Stereo), and Brooklyn rapper Nitty Scott. Despite all that, I don’t feel like The Go! Team is branching out all to much in innovating on the sounds from their previous albums.  But a sense of sameness can be good if the music was good to start with, and I think this is a step up from Get Up Sequences Part One.

Rating: ***1/2

Song of the Week: “Look Away, Look Away” by The Go! Team feat. The Star Feminine Band


The Go! Team feat. The Star Feminine Band – “Look Away, Look Away”

The Go! Team and The Star Feminine Band have both been featured in the Song of the Week series before so this team-up is a natural fit!

Song of the Week 2022

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

 

Album Review: Get Up Sequences Part One by The Go! Team


Album: Get Up Sequences Part One
Artist: The Go! Team
Release Date: July 2, 2021
Label: Memphis Industries
Favorite Tracks:

  • “Let the Seasons Work”
  • “Cookie Scene”
  • “Tame the Great Plains”
  • “World Remember Me Now”

Thoughts: The Go! Team haven’t been as good as they used to be for a while.  Or perhaps, the remarkable sameness of their music is an indication that they are as good as they used to be, they just haven’t changed while the listeners have.  Anyhow, The Go! Team is always fun to listen to as they cobble together from various sources, the weirder the better.  I think I like this album better overall than its predecessor SEMICIRCLE.
Rating: ***

Related Posts:

2018 Year in Review: Favorite Songs – Part 1


It’s that time of the year for my list of favorite songs.  I’m doing things a little differently this year.  First, I have 25 songs to recognize this year (plus one honorable mention).  Second, I’m ranking them.  Third, I’ll be publishing the list over three posts today. I’ve limited the list to one song per artist, lest I just list the entirety of Dirty Computer.

Let’s get started!

Honorable Mention: “BAMM” :: Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Kylee Russell (from Zombies)

25. “Hollywood (feat. Snoop Dogg & Jamie Principle)” :: Gorillaz

24. “Baby Luv” :: Nilüfer Yanya

23. “Tear Me to Pieces” :: Meg Myers

22. “Loneliest Girl” :: Princess Chelsea

21. “May Your Kindness Remain” :: Courtney Marie Andrews 

20. “Semicircle Song” :: The Go! Team 

19. “Future Me Hates Me” :: The Beths

18. “Under the Wheels” :: Calexico 

17. “In Your Beat” :: Django Django

16. “Before the Waters Get too High” :: Parquet Courts

Stay tuned for part two!

Favorite Songs by Year

1973 1974 1975 1976
1977 1978 1979 1980
1981 1982 1983 1984
1985 1986 1987 1988
1989 1990 1991 1992
1993 1994 1995 1996
1997 1998 1999 2000
2001 2002 2003 2004
2005 2006 2007 2008
2009 2010 2011 2012
2013 2014 2015 2016
2017

Album Review: SEMICIRCLE by The Go! Team


AlbumSEMICIRCLE
ArtistThe Go! Team
Release Date: 19 January 2018
Favorite Tracks:

  • The Semicircle Song
  • The Answer’s No — Now What’s the Question
  • She’s Got Guns

Thoughts:

The Go! Team is gimmick band that mixes together a late-60s pop/soul sound with samples of marching bands, cheerleader chants, and movie dialogue, among other things. But it’s a very good gimmick as they manage to once again produce a solid album of upbeat pop confection. Strange that this is released in January actually, as SEMICIRCLE is ripe to score the soundtrack of summer.

Rating: ***