BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number One

The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

I've got to be honest here. This has been my choice for best album of the year from the moment I heard it in early August. Nobody else even had a chance. The Go! Team are truly one of a kind, cranking out dense, Avalanches-esque songs but with real live instruments, not just samples. Musically they mix together so many different genres, from lo-fi surf rock ("Panther Dash") to Jackson 5 bubble gum pop ("Ladyflash") to Charlie Brown-type piano tunes ("Feel Good by Numbers"), that as a band they are unclassifiable. The biggest reason to love this album, though, is because it is just so much goddamn fun. It just makes you want to get up and move. Maybe not dance as much as chase criminals through the streets of Honolulu or pilot a helicopter on an against-all-odds mission to "go get our boy back". But where all these elements really come together is with "The Power Is On", the crowning moment of the album. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to this incredible song, but every time I hear it, it never fails to get me fired up. It’s like a block party, a spy adventure and a pep rally all rolled into one. Words don’t really do this album justice, though. Let’s just say that this is, hands down, the feel awesome album of the year and leave it at that.