“Do you wanna rock the house and turn this mutha out?” In all imaginable circumstances, an old-school rap lyric like that—anachronistically placed on a rock record in 2007—would be grounds for automatic revilement, and deservedly so. It’s fortunate, then, that UK indie troupe The Go! Team in no way qualifies as an imaginable circumstance, even coming off the group’s widely heard and much celebrated 2004 entrée Thunder, Lightning, Strike.
Album No. 2 again finds musical director/mad concocter Ian Parton and his six-piece band of merry revelers intermingling oddball samples and original sounds, though to a notably different effect. Where the debut played like the misplaced soundtrack to a ’70s blaxploitation flick, Proof of Youth tones down the visual elements for a straight-up party vibe, beginning with female rapper Ninja’s retro revival atop “Grip Like a Vice” (“Party people in the place get ready for this!”), skipping along to jubilant chant-alongs “Titanic Vandalism” and “Keys to the City” and ending with you-know-you’ve-heard-its-components-
somewhere-before instrumental closer “Patricia’s Moving Picture.”
Though nowhere near as jarringly original as its predecessor—what could be, really?—Proof of Youth proves that Parton didn’t dump all his good ideas into his debut. Proof of Youth even features a cameo by Chuck D on “Flashlight Fight,” and if Chuck ain’t bristling at the album’s lyrical liberties, how in the world can we?
THE GO! TEAM
Proof of Youth
***