Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky: Ok Go (***) <Capitol> Genre: Glam Pop The Youtube phenomenon returns with a fun, in-your-face, but ultimately voiceless album Ok Go are not a band of subtlety.  They are either completely revved up and ready to rock or subdued and sexy.  For the most part, I really enjoyed their first two albums.  Their sound may have been entirely concocted, but the songs were there, full of lyrical wit and powerpop goodness.  After five years, the Chicago group has returned with their third release, this time with a slightly different approach.  Frontman Damian Kulash has rejected the David Bowie/Mick Jagger confident rock n’ roll star appearance for the hushed sexy cool of Prince.  The beats are funkier, and you could say the songs on a whole are dancier and reflect a more 80’s feel than Ok Go’s previous efforts. While it’s all pretty good material, I can’t help but feel disappointed.   Had this been released only a year or so after the unexpected hit, Oh No, it would have been fine.  But for a record that’s been five years in the making, the songs seem remarkably unrefined.  There are some nuggets and some good ideas here and there, but Of the Colour of the Blue Sky almost feels like a b-sides collection than a proper album.  The opener, “WTF,” copies Prince in almost every way, but mostly in a fun tongue-in-cheek sort of manner.  Kulash remains in a falsetto for almost the entire song, all the while the beat blasting in at an odd 5/4 time signature.  The other fun number, “White Knuckles,” sounds like something that could have gone on Dirty Minds or 1999.  It’s got all the funk and the vocal delivery.   And while it might be a fun idea to emulate Prince, it starts to grate very quickly.  Almost every track sounds like Ok Go wanting to recreate Purple Rain.  It may have been okay for one song.  But it’s just too much.  Ok Go need to find their own sound, and to be three albums into their career, it makes me wonder if they will ever find it.  It confuses me a lot.  The band is so creative when it comes to their videos and their image, but they just can’t deliver in the song department, at least on this record.  Every song is vaguely catchy, vaguely innovative and different, and vaguely soulless and witless.  Just vaguely.  The album’s not terrible.  It’s not good either.  it’s just sort of good, sort of crappy, a few good songs, that’s it.   Key Tracks: “WTF,” “White Knuckles” For Fans Of: Prince, T. Rex, David Bowie

Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky: Ok Go (***) <Capitol>

Genre: Glam Pop

The Youtube phenomenon returns with a fun, in-your-face, but ultimately voiceless album

Ok Go are not a band of subtlety.  They are either completely revved up and ready to rock or subdued and sexy.  For the most part, I really enjoyed their first two albums.  Their sound may have been entirely concocted, but the songs were there, full of lyrical wit and powerpop goodness.  After five years, the Chicago group has returned with their third release, this time with a slightly different approach.  Frontman Damian Kulash has rejected the David Bowie/Mick Jagger confident rock n’ roll star appearance for the hushed sexy cool of Prince.  The beats are funkier, and you could say the songs on a whole are dancier and reflect a more 80’s feel than Ok Go’s previous efforts.

While it’s all pretty good material, I can’t help but feel disappointed.  

Had this been released only a year or so after the unexpected hit, Oh No, it would have been fine.  But for a record that’s been five years in the making, the songs seem remarkably unrefined.  There are some nuggets and some good ideas here and there, but Of the Colour of the Blue Sky almost feels like a b-sides collection than a proper album.  The opener, “WTF,” copies Prince in almost every way, but mostly in a fun tongue-in-cheek sort of manner.  Kulash remains in a falsetto for almost the entire song, all the while the beat blasting in at an odd 5/4 time signature.  The other fun number, “White Knuckles,” sounds like something that could have gone on Dirty Minds or 1999.  It’s got all the funk and the vocal delivery.  

And while it might be a fun idea to emulate Prince, it starts to grate very quickly.  Almost every track sounds like Ok Go wanting to recreate Purple Rain.  It may have been okay for one song.  But it’s just too much.  Ok Go need to find their own sound, and to be three albums into their career, it makes me wonder if they will ever find it.  It confuses me a lot.  The band is so creative when it comes to their videos and their image, but they just can’t deliver in the song department, at least on this record.  Every song is vaguely catchy, vaguely innovative and different, and vaguely soulless and witless.  Just vaguely.  The album’s not terrible.  It’s not good either.  it’s just sort of good, sort of crappy, a few good songs, that’s it.  

Key Tracks: “WTF,” “White Knuckles”

For Fans Of: Prince, T. Rex, David Bowie