The Go! Team
Semicircle


4.5
superb

Review

by solisoc USER (2 Reviews)
January 20th, 2018 | 38 replies


Release Date: 2018 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Party for your right to fight

Semicircle, The Go! Team's latest record, begins with a track called "Mayday" and finishes with one titled "Getting Back Up". This journey from trouble to triumph is representative of the conquering spirit that runs through the album, powered by ebullient marching band horns and drums alongside the vitality and melodrama of the Detroit Youth Choir. As a whole, it makes for an easier listen than their super-sweet previous album, The Scene Between, while offering a cohesive sound that recalls their debut.

The band has never been very intellectual with their lyrics and they don't start here; their songs have always functioned best as ciphers for their listeners' feelings. Perhaps it's a fluke of timing, but the exuberant mood of the album makes for a pick-me-up much needed after a harrowing 2017. "We got a lot of what it takes to get by," standout track "Semicircle Song" declares, walloping doubters out of the way with its blitz of horns, drums and glockenspiel. On "She's Got Guns", frontwoman Ninja makes a triumphant return, spitting "Got a problem? / Honey, 'bout we take it over there?" while the music stutters around her like an unfortunate adversary. Annelotte de Graff (a.k.a. Amber Arcades) lends her voice to the shoegaze-y "Plans Are Like a Dream U Organise", admitting "Something getting in the way and it's all too much / Something getting in the way and I think it's us" as an electric guitar beeps a path through a swirl of ragged, intoxicating noise.

These are the best songs because they epitomise the album's rambunctious, go-get-'em atmosphere; this energetic air almost makes them feel functional, like fuel you can use to power yourself forward. Other tracks may not have the same heft, but they're still very listenable. The keening vocals of Bandcamp find Darenda Weaver complement chunky drums in "The Answer's No - Now What's the Question?", the Morse code conceit of "Mayday" mixes cutely with a teenage vocalist's plaintive spoken-word cry for help, "All the Way Live" veers between funky and fury with its old-school rap chants, and closing track "Getting Back Up" provides a glowing warmdown of the type the band have always been so good at. The only letdown is "Chico's Radical Decade", an instrumental which strays into territory better covered in previous albums.

"Party for your right to fight!" In the album's press release, bandleader Ian Parton exhorts us to respond to the fractious state of world affairs. In eighteen years, it's probably the most topical he's ever gotten with The Go! Team's music. At the same time, it's a clever inversion of a classic line, underscoring what the band has long been shooting for with its sound. The Go! Team has never come with battles to fight. They've come to help you fight your battles. With Semicircle, they sling support that's very gratefully received.


user ratings (48)
3.4
great

Comments:Add a Comment 
solisoc
January 20th 2018


22 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

ugghghghg no my precious question marks



Anyway yeah I really liked this, but I am a Go! Team stan so



Semicircle Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwCJIQ25sV4

She's Got Guns - https://thegoteam.bandcamp.com/track/she-s-got-guns

Plans Are Like a Dream U Organise - https://thegoteam.bandcamp.com/track/plans-are-like-a-dream-u-organise

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
January 20th 2018


32179 Comments


Oooohhh,I was planning to review this but I LOVE your write up so bravo!

Really uplifting n fun album, hope people here get on it.

Digging: Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate

Papa Universe
January 20th 2018


22502 Comments


was planning on reviewing this too, but oh well
the POS! team

solisoc
January 20th 2018


22 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Thanks friends (: curious about your fave tracks, pls share

Sowing
Moderator
January 20th 2018


44509 Comments


great review
need to check this

Digging: Halsey - The Great Impersonator

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
January 20th 2018


32179 Comments


Mayday, Hey! and She's Got Guns are big favourites right now.

Papa Universe
January 20th 2018


22502 Comments


ffffffeatured

solisoc
January 20th 2018


22 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

wohoo

Sinternet
Contributing Reviewer
January 20th 2018


26767 Comments


wooo hometown legends

album is rad from what i've heard

also one of the guitarists is the grandson of a lady who used to work at my secondary school

gryndstone
January 20th 2018


2824 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I love uhh "If there's one thing you should know"



i can't wait to see these guys again, i love this album so much

solisoc
January 20th 2018


22 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

if there's one thing you should know is so fruity, i love the way the steel drum slams into u at the start



jealous! hope they tour down here in Oz sometime soon, they haven't popped over since 2011 :'(

KevinKC
January 20th 2018


1479 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

They sound like the jackson five at times.

klap
Emeritus
January 20th 2018


12410 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

nice, glad someone got on this one

doomes
January 20th 2018


279 Comments


does this have any fast-paced jams

if not, then automatically average and kinda boring

doomes
January 20th 2018


279 Comments


i don't read reviews so sorry if you mentioned something in the review

brokencycle
January 20th 2018


187 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

“She’s got Guns” is so fucking good!

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
January 21st 2018


32179 Comments


It has so much swag it's ridiculous.

gryndstone
January 21st 2018


2824 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

swagtastic

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
January 24th 2018


32179 Comments


swagland

JesperL
Staff Reviewer
January 25th 2018


5664 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

this is pretty hit or miss for me, tho the hits (like the answer's no) are excellent.



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