OK Go”Oh No”Once Chicago’s great white hope,…

OK Go

“Oh No”

Once Chicago’s great white hope, OK Go never went much further than next-big-thing status with its self-titled 2002 debut. That status feels undiminished with the slick but mostly satisfying “Oh No,” but the songs and new rock muscle feel like they might actually click with listeners. One clue is the vile spread of “A Million Ways.” Another is the unbridled enthusiasm and larger-than-life, power-pop-meets-classic-rock-meets-new-wave hooks that drive songs such as “A Good Idea at the Time,” “Here It Goes Again” and “A Million Ways.” Damian Kulash holds it all together, sounding simultaneously brash, smug, swaggering and ironic.

Best track: “Maybe, This Time” is a much needed minor-key counter to the rest of the album’s infectious but incessant power-chord bombast.

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Edited by Curt Wagner ([email protected]) and Victoria Rodriguez ([email protected])