Drops: The Go! Team's 'Rolling Blackouts'

It was a different world when The Go! Team arrived in 2005 with its wildly upbeat, unique combination of cheerleader chants, dance beats and music influenced by '70s TV themes.

How would this bunch of British indie upstarts ever find a home in the pop world? Well, they did - in part because Target adopted the band's anthem "We Just Won't Be Defeated" into a variety of commercials and in part because we now live in a music world where inventive indie bands such as Arcade Fire can hit No. 1 on the charts.

And maybe that's the issue with The Go! Team's third album, "Rolling Blackouts" (Memphis Industries). The ever-evolving world seems to have passed them by.

That's not to say the horn-blasting, swaggering hip-hop amalgamation of "T.O.R.N.A.D.O." isn't thrilling, especially when rapper Ninja gets going. Or that the guitar-driven first single, "Buy Nothing Day," featuring Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino sounding as perfectly poppy as Neko Case in the midst of The New Pornographers, doesn't conjure up the aural equivalent of sunshine.

But so much of "Rolling Blackouts" has a been-there, done-that feel. As nice as it is to be reminded of Mike Post's "Hill Street Blues" theme or faded disco instrumentals, the combination has been done - often by The Go! Team itself on its groundbreaking "Thunder, Lightning, Strike" debut. Unfortunately, it seems The Go! Team is idling a bit too much.

The Go! Team

"Rolling Blackouts"

GRADE B

BOTTOM LINE The perky British indie-popsters are on target