Albums you need to hear now

OK Go

“Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”
(Capitol Records)
Did OK Go really make an album that frequently recalls Prince? And did it really work? The band, which formed in Chicago, is all sexy swagger and falsetto cool on “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky,” a big, triumphant pop album (out Jan. 12) that might be a sad look at lost love if it weren’t so darn funky. The record is the group’s first full-length since 2005’s “Oh No,” which spawned the treadmill-choreographed video “Here It Goes Again.” For anyone not firmly determined to live in the past, “Blue Colour” should put to rest any opinions that OK Go is just a novelty act with a popular video. The qualified optimism of “This Too Shall Pass” and singer Damian Kulash’s panted desire in “I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe” will be recognizable to anyone who’s ever seen another person and, eventually, had to get over not seeing them again. “It don’t get much dumber than trying to forget a girl when you love her,” Kulash wails in “Needing/Getting,” a throbbing confession that’s like the heart and the groin conspiring together.

Posted Jan. 6 by Matt Pais

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