Beauty And The Beat - The Go-Go's
Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 5:07 amThe Go-Go’s exploded onto the New Wave pop music scene in 1981 with Beauty and the Beat, their debut record, and its classic hit singles “We Got The Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed”. The album was followed by only a precious two more albums (unless you count their 2001 comeback album, God Bless The Go-Go’s) and several more big hits (“Vacation”, “Head Over Heels”) until 1985 when the band had sadly combusted from the same volcanic energy that propelled them to pop greatness in the first place. Historically, they were the first fully autonomous all-female rock band to conquer the music scene – effectively blazing the trail for myriad girl-power rock groups that followed. (They were also influencing young women’s fashions and hairstyles a good two years before anyone knew who Madonna was!) Although their third and final 80’s album, Talk Show, was their slickest in artistic terms, Beauty and the Beat is easily their most fun and irresistible – still every bit as engaging today as it was when it rocketed to #1 in '82 and probably even more so today for its quaint early 80’s veneer.
All 11 tracks burst and bubble with energy, buoyed by walloping hooks, cheerleader choruses, charging percussion by Gina Schock and last but certainly not least the ingratiating bubble-gum vocals by probably the cutest frontwoman in rock history – future red-headed siren Belinda Carlisle. The production is appealingly garagey (if sugar-polished) and awash with twangy guitars and tinny 80’s keyboards. Care was taken to sweeten out most traces of the group’s hardcore punk roots, which they’d shrewdly scoured at the eleventh-hour to help land a record deal. The producers also slowed their hyperkinetic tempos a bit to clarify the hooks and voila!
But while the almost sophomorically simple, anthemic signature tune “We Got The Beat”, the infectiously quirky “Our Lips Are Sealed” and the twangy, surfer-pop gem “How Much More” were appropriately perky, the bandmembers’ hard-edged lifestyles remain in evidence in darker, more metallic tracks such as the feisty, militant (but oh, so catchy) “Tonite”, the grim, robotic “Automatic” and the charging rocker “Lust To Love”. “This Town” is especially hard-core, with machine-gun percussion, growling guitars and gritty lyrics. And “Skidmarks On My Heart” takes the riffs and theme of the vintage pop classic “Leader Of The Pack” and turns it on its ear with a decidedly more modern take on the subject matter.
But the magic of the album comes from how the band always manages to shore their every outing up in waves of rollicking hooks and ferocious energy. It’s girl-power rock at its best – streetwise and feisty yet buoyed by an innocent sense of fun. The farcical jacket photos of the girls primping in bubble baths, mud-masks and towels establishes the tone perfectly for (and pardon me while I don a more feminine persona for a moment) it’s absolutely the perfect record to play while dolling oneself up for a night on the town.
Did I say that Belinda was cute?[:p]
All 11 tracks burst and bubble with energy, buoyed by walloping hooks, cheerleader choruses, charging percussion by Gina Schock and last but certainly not least the ingratiating bubble-gum vocals by probably the cutest frontwoman in rock history – future red-headed siren Belinda Carlisle. The production is appealingly garagey (if sugar-polished) and awash with twangy guitars and tinny 80’s keyboards. Care was taken to sweeten out most traces of the group’s hardcore punk roots, which they’d shrewdly scoured at the eleventh-hour to help land a record deal. The producers also slowed their hyperkinetic tempos a bit to clarify the hooks and voila!
But while the almost sophomorically simple, anthemic signature tune “We Got The Beat”, the infectiously quirky “Our Lips Are Sealed” and the twangy, surfer-pop gem “How Much More” were appropriately perky, the bandmembers’ hard-edged lifestyles remain in evidence in darker, more metallic tracks such as the feisty, militant (but oh, so catchy) “Tonite”, the grim, robotic “Automatic” and the charging rocker “Lust To Love”. “This Town” is especially hard-core, with machine-gun percussion, growling guitars and gritty lyrics. And “Skidmarks On My Heart” takes the riffs and theme of the vintage pop classic “Leader Of The Pack” and turns it on its ear with a decidedly more modern take on the subject matter.
But the magic of the album comes from how the band always manages to shore their every outing up in waves of rollicking hooks and ferocious energy. It’s girl-power rock at its best – streetwise and feisty yet buoyed by an innocent sense of fun. The farcical jacket photos of the girls primping in bubble baths, mud-masks and towels establishes the tone perfectly for (and pardon me while I don a more feminine persona for a moment) it’s absolutely the perfect record to play while dolling oneself up for a night on the town.
Did I say that Belinda was cute?[:p]