OK Go

OK Go

Capitol Records

Recipe for a rock ‘n’…

OK Go

OK Go

Capitol Records

Recipe for a rock ‘n’ roll band: Combine cute young boys, a band name you’ll have to say more than once to be understood, keyboard noodles, mid-tempo beats and jangly guitars.

Garnish with occasionally witty lyrics about the confusion of love and city life. Mix it up and scoop into 12 two-to-three-minute units and send it all off to a big record label. You then have a nice helping of OK Go, a band that strikes a delicate balance between corny and brainy, between indie and arena rock and serves a decent amount of the population.

OK Go singer and guitarist Damian Kulash met with bassist Tom Norwind at summer camp when both were 11 years old. They formed the Greased Ferrets, who used folding chairs as a drum kit. They later added two more members and officially formed OK Go in 1999, and slyly introduced themselves by touring with the Vines, Phantom Planet and Superdrag.

For a band that’s earned comparisons to everything from Weezer, Queen and The Cars to The Pixies and Elliott Smith, one would expect a little more (or sometimes a little less) from their self-titled debut album. OK Go takes a little bit from each of these bands’ sounds and plenty of others to make their own decent stuff, which is likely to end up on a teen movie soundtrack or playing in the background at a boring party.

OK Go’s debut contains fun-loving tunes devoid of any serious conflict or innovation. They merely play archetypal rock music, which isn’t all bad. This album does after all contain such self-explanatory gems as “You’re so damn hot” and “C-C-C-Cinnamon lips,” as well as handclaps, a rarity in most music these days.

Though OK Go isn’t doing anything revolutionary, they do have a nostalgic quality, which is always a selling point, but don’t get this album before taking a look through your parents’ record collection first.