Howl On The Haunted Beat You Ride

by

The Go

Edit

My predecessor here reviewed this album when it was first released locally. But now that it's available internationally, with the band recently embarking on a U.S. tour, it might be time for me to weigh in and say, unequivocally, that this is one fine collection of songs. With Howl..., the Go help Detroit to bury that whole "garage" rock association (which, let's face it, became a bit of an unfortunate stigma) once and for all.

The overall sound here is somewhat reminiscent of L.A.'s neopsychedelic Paisley Underground scene ... if the Paisley Underground had produced better songs. And the Go has two terrific songwriters in Bobby Harlow and John Krautner. The two wear their influences on their sleeves, be it the Kinks (Harlow sounds positively Ray Davies-ish on both "Yer Stoned Italian Cowboy" and the wonderful "She's Prettiest When She Cries"), the Small Faces, Jefferson Airplane (a comparison that might even surprise them), the Beach Boys, the Beatles ... hell, it again may not be intentional, but the glorious "Mary Ann" appears to cop a brief reference from the Four Seasons in its charming opening moments (which would make sense in the grand scheme of things). And yet, it's all distinctive enough to totally sound like no one but the Go, making the group part of a now-fading but still occasionally surprising chain.

The riff-driven "Mercurial Girl" is hard-driving, hard-rocking psychedelic pop; the aforementioned "She's Prettiest ..." a pure pop-meets-bubblegum instant classic, simply overflowing with melody and irresistible melancholy. It takes a lot of chutzpah to name songs "Caroline" and "Mary Ann" (which Harlow and Krautner, respectively and individually, have done here), two of the archetypal girl names in past great rock songs. And yet they've come up with new compositions that actually compete or at least can still stand tall in great company. The Go aren't reinventing the wheel here so much as demonstrating that the wheel still has plenty of tread left. And Howl on the Haunted Beat You Ride, despite its somewhat pretentious title, is as good as any rock album I'm sure I'm going to hear this year. - Bill Holdship

Not sure I can buy the 2 previous 5-star reviews. I give the band a lot

of credit for originality (even though they are copying 60s/70s

psychadelic-pop bands) making this type of music in 2007. They are trying

to channel an older, stripped-down sound, but this effort falls well

short of their last album which I believe was self-titled. This record

is consistenly whiny and brings to mind some of the bad pop bands of

the 70's rather than classics such as the Faces or the Stones. The prior record titled "The Go" was much more fun and edgy with fuzzy guitars and

cocky lyrics. This release seems more mainstream and takes less chances.

Perhaps they were going for a crooning Badfinger-lite sound, but gimme

the Monkey Man sound of the prior record any day. There is no howling

on this record and very few haunted beats for that matter.