Go Forth

Les Savy Fav | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 12, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Frenchkiss
• ASIN: B00005OMBI
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,394 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Go Forth is the third full-length album from Brooklyn's new-wave bruisers Les Savy Fav. One of the most remarkable acts to ever emerge from America's postpunk melting pot (a gang of sharp-dressed art students and a frenzied, hairy front man who dresses as a pirate), Les Savy Fav bring the art of confrontation back to rock & roll, but barb their brash physical assault with a musical ingenuity and fierce intelligence. While the Rome (Written Upside Down) EP was the first record to properly capture the Les Savy live sound--a lithe, danceable new-wave rush peppered with electronics--Go Forth adds beats and synthesizer to the tight, jarring musical clatter. Front man Tim Harrington's continues to write enlightening and elliptical lyrics, a frantic mix of cryptic intellectual allusions and cut-and-paste wordplay ("I crave to catch an edge / Break bones and cartilage / Send back the architects of Carthage," he hollers on "One to Three"). With so much of the alternative sector lost to irony, decadence, and self-absorption, Go Forth sounds as pure and true as a missionary's teachings. Become a convert. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fire alarms sound, fire frightens sight, November 8, 2001

By 

Kevin Mulcahy (east lansing) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Go Forth (Audio CD)

it took a while for this new LSF record to hit me, but it finally has. it's true that the production is different on this album. it even sounds a lot different than the ROME ep, in my opinion. it's something about the guitar riffs, they are further back and little less in-your-face. les savy fav definitely have a few more groove oriented things going on with this release, especially with "the slip." but all this doesn't mean they don't bring the rock and the spazz, because i think they definitely do. the only thing that i wasn't sure about were the melodies, especially the vocal melodies. they just weren't sinking in at first, but after a few spins i can't stop listening. it really is great. the arrangements are as original as ever and tim harrington's lyrics are the best they've ever been. not all the songs are complete home runs, but the only one that isn't extra bases is probably "Daily Dares," which i guess is good enough for what it is, but i could pretty much do without it. I would give some of my favorite tracks, but they keep changing, they really are all great. Buy this. If i waited a few more days to write this review, i would probably give it 5 stars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars L-E-S-S-A-V-Y-F-A-V, October 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Go Forth (Audio CD)

The production values are a little different, the sound is a little different, but this is still Les Savy Fav, and in my opinion at their best!

I loved 3/5 for its raw spiky brilliance, and though I loved The Cat and the Cobra too, it was a little polished for my taste at the time. When I finally managed to track down ROME, I was blown away by the ideas on the record. The new influences more than made up for the loss of one guitar, and made for a much more exciting and vital band.

With Go Forth the band continue on this trajectory, exploring the slightly more electro influenced sound that we heard inklings of on ROME. Don't misunderstand me, this isn't Trans Am, thank god! Les Savy Fav still rock your socks off, but now there's more going on than guitar, bass, drums, vox. Tim's lyrics are the most interesting and funny in any genre of music right now, and Go Forth is FULL of great, great lines.

The combination of spiky, angular, explosive punk rock with hillarious, intelligent, eliptical lyrics and a smattering of electro thrown in for good measure makes me wanna dance and riot at the same time!!! Who wants a band to sound exactly like they sounded on their first release anyway??

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Represents a new direction..., October 24, 2001

By 

jason edwards (Peoria, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Go Forth (Audio CD)

First off, I love Les Savy Fav. I've watched them grow since 3/5 and even sought out their first demo from a friend that went to college with them. Their spazzy eccentricities were a great collage of what I love about indie rock and they followed in the footsteps of Brainiac, Archers of Loaf and Fugazi, in my cannon of 90's avant punk favorites. 3/5's sounded like a young excited band that was still reconciling their influences and excited to be finding their own way. Cat and the Cobra was the band's sound coming to fruition. It was indeed a very good record that stood up next to "Hissing Prigs..." or "Severe Exposure" --albums that obviously influenced the band intially. The Rome e.p. was good and while I missed Gibb's duelling second guitar I was excited by the band's artier pretensions.
This new record however tows the line in a surprisingly conventional way. Phil Ek's production has airbrushed their sound into a cotton candy goo. Tim's vocals are chorused, and reverbed, and overdubbed to a egregous degree and the absence of the second guitar has rendered their compositions into merely good uptempo pop songs. I miss the dry style of Nic Verhnes production on previous efforts.
"Reprobates Resume" and "Adoptduction" are very well written, and the rest of Go Forth isn't bad...the band certainly sounds more professional, but it seems like they've lost some momentum as a result. Here's hoping its just a phase and they go back to a more insurgent and less polished sound.