Oh No

1	Invincible 3:30
2	Do What You Want 3:06
3	Here It Goes Again 2:59
4	A Good Idea at the Time 3:14
5	Oh Lately It's So Quiet 3:00
6	It's a Disaster 3:21
7	A Million Ways 3:13
8	No Sign of Life 3:48
9	Let It Rain 2:56
10	Crash the Party 2:24
11	Television, Television 2:39
12	Maybe, This Time 3:15
13	The House Wins 4:15
14	[Untitled Track] 34:46

Barnes & Noble

OK Go's effervescent debut bounced and bubbled with sugary power pop, but their role as the band-of-choice for NPR's This American Life betrays their underlying smarts. On Oh No, their second album, OK Go sharpen both their guitars and their wit. Producer Tore Johansson works the same magic he found for Franz Ferdinand's debut, enabling the guitars on "Do What You Want" and "Invincible" to burst with bright, radio-friendly energy. OK Go are chameleons: the jittery "Here It Comes Again" revs up like the Cars; the falsetto "Oh Lately It's So Quiet" has the soulful swagger of Lenny Kravitz; the punk-funk "A Million Miles" harks back to the Clash circa "Rock the Casbah." But the diversity is all part of Oh No's fun, and the knowing allusions only add to the pleasure, never more so than on "A Good Idea at the Time," which is a sly political critique that appropriates the rhetoric of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," right down to the whoo-whoos. Whether skewering consumer culture on the speedy "Television, Television" or hipster pretensions on the glammy "Crash the Party," Oh No affirms OK Go's gift for marrying snappy wit to sing-along choruses and memorable hooks. Steve Klinge

All Music Guide

The anxious and modern children of indie rock and new wave, OK Go will always have something you can love. In 2002 it was a squelchy, three-minute summation of what made the Pixies great called "Get Over It." Three years later it's a savvy batch of songs that are probably too calculated for their own good -- perfectly arranged like those natty suits the quartet wears in Oh No's photos -- but too prickly with excitement to really ignore. As tense and bursting as it is hooky and efficient, "Do What You Want" sounds a lot like the Hives. But it could also be a sly and modern Escape Club. This continues with "Here It Goes Again" and "Good Idea at the Time," songs that cut too jaggedly to be opportunistic revivalism but still whir with new wave's wiggy energy. Fans of OK Go's first album will love "No Sign of Life" and the weirder "Oh Lately It's So Quiet," while "Crash the Party"'s 1000-watt tingle is more the speed of Oh No. Sometimes that speed does seem factory-set, though. "Million Ways" is where the album's calculated feel really surfaces. Its modified disco swagger and three-note guitar lead is so perfect for 21st century modern rock, so edgy and hooky all at the same time. (Keep in mind: Franz Ferdinand producer Tore Johansson also handled the boards for Oh No.) "Television, Television" too, with its trash culture referential lyrics and hyper rhythms, winks with a knowing sense. But what are you going to do? OK Go has written an album that coats its incredibly accessible nuts and bolts with an effervescent rocket sauce, and that's just the way it is. It's got that unique zing, the one that says "modern rock sensation!" on the label. Johnny Loftus