God Bless the Go-Go's

Did ya hear? The Go-Go's are back. The upbeat, infectious pop stylings are back (in fact, you can hear "We Got The Beat" on a couple of tracks)!I'm wary of reunion albums. Fortunately, the Go-Go's are not trying to reinvent the wheel or pulling a "biggest event of all time" attitude (see:Eagles), they just updated their sound a little and got a little Girl Power goin on. If you liked them before, you'll like them now. If you hated them, you probably still will. They are lyrically more mature (duh) and the songs are still the fine Go-Go's pop you remember. They have generated a great deal of controversy with the album title and the iconography of the PR blitz (they are poking fun at the Church). More power to them. As the saying goes: Joke them if they can't... wait no, that's wrong. Nevermind.

La-La Land is a not so subtle jab at SoCal culture and the music industry in particular. The very catchy Unforgiven was co-written by Billie Joe (Green Day, in case you didn't know) and is great. Apology is almost an answer to Unforgiven, apologizing for not having any regrets. I have to wonder if Belinda always sounded like Courtney Love on Malibu... Stuck In My Car is about being in a rut and trying to get out of it (though maybe I'm not being literal enough). Insincere is another track about a failed relationships (seems like there's a lot of those going around, judging by the albums I've heard recently).

Overall, a quite strong album, which I frankly wasn't expecting. I expected to pan this but found myself pleasantly surprised. Again, if you like the Go-Go's, you'll love this.