‘Thunder, Lightning, Strike’: The Go! Team and a perfect sunshine album
I know that for readers outside of the UK, your perception of our country revolves around our bland cuisine, funny regional accents and drab weather, but let me tell you, things are far worse than that. However, when the sun does shine on our miserable little island, we certainly like to make the most of it. Sure, the further north you travel, the more extreme the reactions can be to those first rays of sunshine, and while I don’t abide by eight degrees Celsius being ‘tops off’ weather, I’ve got my own way of celebrating a clear blue sky.
It’s a tradition of sorts, and while this year it came unexpectedly as beams of light blinded me on the top deck of a bus, I’ve got an album that I feel compelled to listen to whenever spring hits with full force. Of course, it’s just as perfect to listen to in roasting temperatures, but The Go! Team’s 2004 debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, is the ideal record to listen to and experience in the sunshine.
Hailing from the south coast city of Brighton, a place where I spent five years of my life and hold dear to my heart, The Go! Team are perhaps the finest purveyors of joyful music that this country has produced. Their hometown may be a significant factor in carrying this energy through their output. Brighton is known for its progressive politics and positive outlook, and due to its positioning closer to mainland Europe, can be a glorious seaside suntrap in the summer months.
While each of their albums has the same jovial quality to it, there’s nothing quite like the experience of listening to Thunder, Lightning, Strike to fight off any lingering winter blues, and I can guarantee you’ll feel somewhat revitalised with a buoyant pep in your step after doing so. I realise that as I write this now, the unpredictable microclimate of our island has turned against me once again and delivered torrential rain to stare at out of the misted windows, but even thinking about the carefree glee that the album carries gives me a glimmer of hope in the grey sludge storm.
The band’s founder, multi-instrumentalist Ian Parton, was well aware of how to balance every seemingly clashing influence to perfection, and that’s evident from the moment you press play and are confronted with ‘Panther Dash’. From the opening seconds of the record, you’re confronted by what might seem like a cacophonous and hard-to-stomach amalgamation of sounds when written down, but if you can ease into how vibrant the combination of noise rock guitars, Northern Soul horns and wistful melodicas is, then brace yourself for the joy that’s to come.
Tracks like ‘Ladyflash’ and ‘We Just Won’t Be Defeated’ are sample-heavy psychedelia in the same vein as The Avalanches, complete with nonsensical playground chants in lieu of lyrics. On the first of these two tracks, you’ve got soaring strings being played over the top of what feels like a lost yet chopped-up soul classic, but adding to the vibrancy are sitars and a twinkling guitar line. ‘We Just Won’t Be Defeated’ is somehow even more triumphant in its general mood, with buoyant piano lines and triumphant horns, creating an overwhelming sense of nostalgia flowing through listeners for the ‘Summer of Love’, regardless of whether you were even there to experience it first time around.
There are more intense explosions of sound akin to ‘Panther Dash’ as well, such as in ‘Junior Kickstart’ and ‘The Power is On’, both delving into heavy distortion at points. You don’t lose the lavish instrumentation on these songs, but the riffs are more in keeping with the sound of the post-punk revival happening in tandem with The Go! Team’s emergence in the UK. However, it can at times present a more jagged edge, similar to the wailing walls of noise that Sonic Youth conjured up when at their most abrasive.
On the other hand, these are contrasted by celebratory moments such as ‘Bottle Rocket’ and ‘Friend Opportunity’, which are so ebullient in their presentation that it becomes hard to resist succumbing to their charms. ‘Bottle Rocket’ is based around perhaps the most recognisable sample on the record, repurposing elements of Shirley Ellis’ ‘Soul Time’ while layering it with vinyl scratches, soundclash sound effects and bombastic rapping from vocalist Ninja. On the other hand, ‘Friend Opportunity’ is wistful without being too saccharine, and doesn’t even need lyrics to evoke an overwhelming sense of bliss. If you told me it was the theme tune to a long-forgotten children’s TV show, I honestly wouldn’t bat an eyelid, and even if it was, there’s nothing that’s going to stop me playing it.
Raucous, fun-filled, and life-affirming, Thunder, Lightning, Strike is the definitive sunshine album. Every moment is exploding at the seams with its chipper disposition, and when you’ve been wallowing under your own clouds of gloom for half a year, you’re going to need some bounce in your pace pronto after the spring equinox. A healthy dose of vitamin D certainly helps, but this will help bolster the doctor’s orders.
