Go Time! — Speak

The rock 'n' roll world is one of those places where the adage "don't judge a book by its cover" (or rather, don't judge an album by its cover art") applies more than most, and a strong case for this would be Chicago quartet Go Time!.

You can take a look at their bad photoshop album art (of a barking/snarling dog at a fence) and the track list with songs like "My Suicide" and "Rust To Rust" and automatically assume that Go Time! are some terrible Puddle Of Mudd-esque nu-metal brah band. But once Speak is spinning, you hear something entirely different.

Go Time! inhabit that same classic rock world of a younger Blue Rodeo or even Kim Mitchell. There are no Cookie-Monster metal growls or cheesy prog — it's straight-up blue collar American rock. Yes, that means it's even a little hokey and down-home-y, but there's just no sense of pretention or tongue-in-cheek irony.

This is four guys kicking out solid country-rock-ish jams in tracks such as "Just Don't Know Why" and "Cost." Plus, the opening of "Hey Day" actually sounds a hell of a lot like Queens Of The Stone Age, and I mean that in a good way. It's definitely enough to make the casual listener sit up and take notice.

It's not perfect, though. At 14 decently lengthy tracks, Speak is just a tad too long — the ninth song, "No Sense To Lend," would have made a perfect coda — plus they could really benefit from a more punchy production job next time.

Much of their sound tends to fall a bit flat, particularly in the case of the occasionally lackluster vocals. All in all, though, Speak was a rather solid surprise find, and if this album is any indication, Go Time! would probably go over like gangbusters in bars down south. From here on, it's probably best not to judge these guys by their cover.

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