OK GO

[Proudiddy]

I often like to periodically go digital crate digging, so to speak, and in doing so, I often fall in love with songs, albums, and artists that have been around for years that I wasn't aware of, or at least not as engaged with, prior.

Now, i knew who OK GO was since they first arrived on the national scene back in the early 2000s, mostly thanks to madden, and I had a couple of their songs in my ipod since.  I knew I liked everything I've ever heard from them, and they seemed cool enough...  but upon closer inspection, they aren't just cool - they are fuging awesome.

I hadnt looked deeper into their catalog prior, in part I think because they were labeled as pop, which i generally associate with music lacking depth and susbstance...  so i figured i had heard the best they had to offer with their radio singles.  I was wrong.  

I was showing my kids some of their music videos and explaining to them how they were basically self-promoted and self-made, as a band.  They thought one of their newer videos "upside down, inside out" was awesome, so i kept digging through the troves of videos they made and i loved all of them - especially the music...  which led me to their album "of the blue colour of the sky."  I was amazed at the amount of humanity and personal confessions on it.  The vast majority of the material and lyrics on the album seem to relate to unrequited love, which for some reason always strikes a chord with me.  And I'm always a huge fan of any album you can play from top to bottom and feel satisfied with.  As i was listening to some of the songs, i kept thinking like they had a slight Prince-tinge to them. It turns out, after reading through more stuff on the production of the album, Damian Kulash, the lead singer, was heavily influenced by Purple Rain in his aim for the overall feel of the album.

Probably my favorite track on the album, in large part because of the lyrics, is "Needing/Getting" which I think is even more genius than the rest of the genius on the album, because of it's simultaneous complexity and simplicity.  And as always, the videos are really cool, although i love the grit of the album version though.

And the album version:

Quote

I've been waiting for months
Waiting for years
Waiting for you to change
Aw, but there ain't much that's dumber
There ain't much that's dumber
Than pinning your hopes on a change in another

And I, yeah, I still need you
But what good's that gonna do
Needing is one thing
And getting
Getting's another

So I've been sitting around
Wasting my time
Wondering what you've been doing
Aw, but it ain't real forgiving
It ain't real forgiving
Sitting here picturing
Someone else living

So I've been hoping for months
Hoping for years
Hoping I might forget
Aw, but it don't get much dumber
It don't get much dumber
Than trying to forget
A girl when you love her 

And another one of my favorites, that really reminded me of that Prince sound when I first heard it:

Sorry to geek out, but I felt compelled to share in the event that maybe it resonated with any other huddler like it did with me.