NO GO KNOW – Time Has Nothing to Do With It

NO GO KNOW – Time Has Nothing to Do With It

(Note: The track listing on the album didn’t always seem to match up with the track numbers on my CD player, so the titles referenced may be a bit off. But I think you’ll get the picture.) With clear, high, almost effeminate vocals joining the twang of the strings, Time Has Nothing to Do With It flows between a sparse country jangle and a lush, melodic nightclub sound. The mournful, lonesome tone of “In Bleeding Kansas (Part I)” swells into the majestically dusky reverberations of “My Black Dog,” sounding crafted specifically for sunset drives along roads upon which no other vehicles travel; “No, We Won’t” is both plaintive and defiant; electric sorrow spills from “Christmas Prayer”; and some songs are simply, inexplicably beautiful (“Our Bodies Will Float”). Bringing to mind bands as varied as Mule, Interpol, Talking Heads, Boy Hits Car and The Brought Low (but not neglecting to throw in some proper punk chording in the right places), No Go Know builds up and strips away layers between songs, combining elegant simplicity with richly complex arrangements for a multi-faceted performance that is difficult to pigeonhole. Melodic trickles swell into urgent jams only to sink back into a pretty mire, and the program flows on and on as if it simply doesn’t need to end. By turns sorrowful and euphoric, this double album is perhaps a bit bleak to be as enthralling as it might be, but its melancholic sound does possess a note of appeal that is difficult to entirely deny; you may very well find yourself putting these discs on repeat and not bothering to take them off.