mp3: "Semicircle Song" - The Go! Team
words: Sarah Hojsak
With forthcoming album Semicircle on the way in the new year, it’s time to get excited about The Go! Team again. And the twinkling, effortlessly upbeat title track, “Semicircle Song,” doesn’t make that hard to do. Spirited and carefree, it’s the kind of song that exudes just enough energy and packs just enough power to turn a bad mood into a good one. You can’t listen to it and not smile, especially when the vocals of the Detroit Youth Choir kick in. An innovative touch for a song by a UK indie pop band, the middle of “Semicircle Song” introduces us to several choir members who tell us their names and star signs (and there’s even some love for the Scorpios in there, happy Scorpio season). As bandleader Ian Parton puts it, “With “Semicircle Song” I was trying to take the technicolor feel of a marching band into a more psychedelic place, reclaiming that sound from patriotic or sporty bullshit and harnessing its toughness and power. Brass which takes your head off, bouncy xylophones, offbeat handclaps and toms hopping in the gaps – I hoped it would be recognizably The Go! Team but unlike any song we’d done before.” All the unbridled joy of a high school marching band without the “sporty bullshit”? Count us in.
Semicircle is out Jan. 19 via Memphis Industries.