As evidenced almost immediately by the scalding “WTF?” that serves as its opening charge, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is OK Go’s unequivocal stab at lusty, dirty soul. Amid a heavy dose of zippering melodies and oversexed falsettos courtesy of vocalist Damian Kulash, the Chicago-based foursome use the leadoff track and practically all that follows as bristling, slow-burning homages to irreverent, sex-drenched rock that often comes across as forced posturing. Hence, the album is at its best when the campy antics and faux sex struts are dropped for easy singsong candor, such as the anthemic “This Too Shall Pass” and the unapologetically soapy “All Is Not Lost.” Eventually, and perhaps sooner than OK Go would hope, all the frizzy, chunky refrains and panting vocals start to amass, and the only thing Blue Colour starts to resemble is a hairy lump of borrowed ideas from producer David Fridmann’s previous exploits. Kulash’s gluey voice is eerily evocative of Wayne Coyne’s on entries such as the dragging “While You Were Asleep,” while elsewhere the band mines crackling, degraded sounds that pale in comparison to superior efforts by MGMT. As it stands, Blue Colour is no more than a better-than-average paean to ’80s-era Prince by a band that has yet to find its voice.
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