Everybody Knows It's Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight - The Go Find

Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight

The Go Find
Morr Music.

SCQ Rating: 65%

Making an air-tight case for The Go Find as either doe-eyed sentimentalists or wisely-trained minimalists has always been pretty tough. Sure, we could tell they loved Fleetwood Mac without them repeatedly professing it and those swirling Death Cab For Cutie comparisons had some teeth to them, but it was difficult deriding the Antwerp-based group on account of Stars On the Wall – a record that balanced softie melancholy with Morr’s crafty beats. It was what it was; the optimum word being lovely.

Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight almost manages to skirt its cumbersome name with a title track that picks up right where Dieter Sermeus and Co. left off in 2007. Boasting the same rhythmic prowess and warm synths, The Go Find experiment early with a handful of brass riffing off one another; a small detail, yes, but small details make good Go Find records. Those well-placed xylophone-chimes scattered over ‘Just a Common Love ‘’s dense acoustics provide an unforgettable sense of nostalgia, whereas the percolating 80s guitar in ‘Heart of Gold’ (no, not a cover) gives a soft lens to vague romanticism. Instead of these arrangements working hand-in-hand with Sermeus’ songwriting, as on previous outings, Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen… pads its near forty minutes with a fair share of twee-filler. The predictable verse/chorus tepidness of ‘One Hundred Percent’ and ‘Running Mates’ is compounded by tossed off lyrical blunders that hardly stand for their own intended insightfulness. Had the album’s late-middle been stripped off, Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen… would’ve made an impressive, if overdue, EP. In its current form, however, The Go Find prove that those electronic details do much to sell their soft-rock ambitions.

Stars on the Wall - The Go Find (Morr Music)

Stars on the Wall

The Go Find
Morr Music Records.

SCQ Rating: 83%

Although Morr Music has always been credited with having a strong sense of vision and focus – namely that the entire label should release music that suits founder Thomas Morr's tastes – the German imprint has crawled steadily beyond the confines of electronica, and into electro-pop, what’s easily understood as ‘indie-tronica’, twee-pop and now bonefide pop music. One of the best examples of Morr’s recent transition is The Go Find, who follow up their glitchy debut Miami with an eleven song set closer in scope and sound to Fleetwood Mac or Death Cab for Cutie. More robust and full-blooded, Stars on the Wall oozes the sentiment of both artists’ best work, while managing to maintain its place among the Morr catalogue.

Hearing first single ‘Dictionary’ or the bass-heavy ‘Ice Cold Ice’ makes a good case for Stars on the Wall being another indie-tronic hybrid, and it’s a warranted impression. Yet the heart of this record is in its quieter, acoustic moments; the barren streets of ‘Downtown’, or the simple sweetness of ‘Monday Morning’. These entirely organic songs provide the balance against the more beat-infused tracks and when The Go Find put both talents into effect, we get a song like ‘New Year’; the ideal mix of organic instruments with Morr’s pristine, electronic production. Whether judged as comfort music or a new step in Morr’s evolution, Stars on the Wall has something for just about everyone.