Review Summary: Power Pop's 'OK Computer'.
OK Go’s 2010 album
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is an underappreciated masterpiece. Just as Radiohead transcended their grunge-lite roots with
OK Computer, and The Beatles proved they were more than just teen heartthrobs with
Revolver, OK Go’s third full-length album marked the moment they became more than just another 2000s power-pop band.
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky blends the relatively pedestrian, Weezer-style power pop of their first two records into a decidedly more unique mixture including funk, psychedelic rock, electronica, and indie rock. The result of this is an album that feels very sonically diverse- every track contains a different combination of these ingredients, and has something unique to offer the discerning listener. The album’s wide array of influences- Everything from the Pixies to Prince to the Flaming Lips to Tears for Fears- make Of the Blue Colour of the Sky feel like an instant classic, but it’s still unmistakably modern, and has an identity all its own.
Of course, this album couldn’t be called a “masterpiece” if all it had going for it was a large number of different influences. Luckily, it also delivers in spades on a lyrical level. Primary lyricist Damian Kulash penned 13 epic, brooding songs about love, loss, and finding hope in hopeless situations. The glib detachment present in the lyrics of many of their earlier songs gave way to genuine emotional vulnerability, mirrored by Kulash’s rawest, most passionate vocal performance to date.
One of the most impressive feats pulled off by
OtBCotS is how perfectly and consistently the instrumentation fits the lyrics. On “WTF?,” the sputtering synths, tense funky guitar licks and lurching 5/4 time signature all convey the exact same thing the lyrics do: the rush of emotions when you start falling in love with someone- joy, confusion, and fear all rolled into one. “This Too Shall Pass” is lyrically about keeping calm amidst chaos, which fits the way the extremely chaotic instrumentation- Dan Konopka’s relentless drumming, tinkling pianos, and snatches of background vocals floating through the chorus- interacts with Kulash’s jubilant vocal performance and the sunny pop melody underneath it all. And the shift in dynamics three minutes into “Needing/Getting” encapsulates the moment when the histrionic anguish of a lost chance at love gives way to quiet, aching sadness as perfectly as Kulash going from shouting “And yeah, I still need you, but what good’s that gonna do?” to softly moaning “When? When? Why not now? Why not me?” does.
I first heard
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky when I was a freshman in high school, and it resonated with me in a way few albums had before, or have since. While I was initially drawn in by the catchiness of songs like “This Too Shall Pass” and “Back from Kathmandu,” I eventually grew to appreciate just about every song on the album. For most of high school, “Needing/Getting” and “Last Leaf” were pretty much my go-to “moping about girls” songs, and as silly as that sounds, they really did get me through some tough times. As an aspiring lyricist, I’ve tried and failed time and time again to pen as concise a universal truth as the final verse of “White Knuckles”- “‘Cause nothing ever doesn’t change, but nothing changes much”, lamenting life’s cyclic nature whilst simultaneously coming to terms with it. For me, this was an album that had just as much immediate, surface-level appeal as it did replay value, an album I could have just as much fun dancing to as I could picking apart and examining. Every song had something I got to discover and fall in love with, and that sense of discovery was almost as thrilling as the music itself.
All of this is really just a roundabout way of saying that
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is a very, very good album. Why, then, was it only moderately well-received upon its release, and not held up as a pinnacle of musical achievement, like the albums I compared it to earlier? Well, I think a large part of it is the fact that OK Go’s greatest claim to fame was, and still is, their 2006 music video for “Here it Goes Again,” a meticulously choreographed dance routine on treadmills that quickly went viral. While it made the song a hit and earned the band a Grammy for “Best short-form music video” in 2007, the video, in combination with OK Go’s polished commercial sound at the time, inadvertently pigeon-holed the band as something of a novelty act- a “fun band” that could be enjoyed superficially but was basically incapable of creating anything artistically worthwhile. It didn’t help that the music videos accompanying
OtBCotS were every bit as quirky and elaborate as the one for “Here it Goes Again”- A warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg machine for “This Too Shall Pass,” an 18-hour time-lapse dance routine for “End Love,” and a gaggle of well-trained dogs barking along to “White Knuckles,” among others. As popular and inventive as the videos were, they cemented the band’s unfortunate reputation- OK Go wasn’t a “real band”, they were just 4 guys who made cool music videos.
Hopefully time will be kind to
Of The Blue Colour of the Sky. It’s an album that deserves to be remembered as more than the modest success it was, if for no other reason than so it can be discovered and enjoyed by more people the way it was by me.
