Pitchfork

Human hearing is a pretty incredible thing. After millions of years of predator-avoidance natural selection, we've evolved the ability to discriminate very slight differences in frequency and to recall entire sequences of tones from memory. [NOTE: statement not applicable in Kansas and Harrisburg, Pa.] In modern times, we've harnessed this fantastic skill for truly awe-inspiring tasks, such as perfectly beat-matching LCD Soundsystem into New Order, or scowling derisively when a band's rhythm guitarist is a half-step out of tune.

These wondrous abilities are what had me dreading the American reissue of the Go! Team's excellent debut Thunder, Lightning, Strike. If you haven't heard the backstory, this lawyer-stuffed country made it difficult for the Go! Team to clear the original album's samples for domestic release, forcing the band to slightly tweak the material in order to purge the recordings of legal pitfalls. In addition, the record was reportedly given a gift certificate to the remastering day spa, a process with the potential to thoughtlessly drain some of the group's messy, homemade charm in the name of fidelity. With an album that's been widely available for over a year, even the smallest changes could prove annoyingly distracting to those who've been with the Go! Team from their blog-hype birth.

Fortunately, 1) Thunder, Lightning, Strike is no Paul's Boutique, and 2) Cheerleaders have crappy legal representation. To these obsessive ears, it seems that roughly 95% of the original music is intact, and the differences, where they arise, are minimally distracting. The fanfare horns that kick off "Junior Kickstart" might be slightly tweaked, "Bottle Rocket" might have a new rap from new frontwoman Ninja, they may have swapped one schmaltzy trumpet solo for another on "Everyone's a VIP to Someone", but rarely do the alterations change the character of the song. Even the EPCOT ride through girl-group history "Ladyflash", which I had most feared would go under the knife, is left unspoiled by copyright considerations, praise the courts.

Equally non-intrusive is the remastering, which does a nice job of housekeeping the extraneous hisses while maintaining the band's collage and needle-in-the-red sensibilities. In fact, the remix doesn't so much clean up the songs' pools of bleedover sound so much as merely stir them up, bringing to the surface some new elements that might not have been so readily apparent on the first release. "Panther Dash", for example, seems to contain a lot more power-tool noise-guitar parts than I remembered, reinforcing my impression from their live show that Sonic Youth is just as big an influence as cop themes and Avalanches.

With these factors decidedly non-intrusive, the most significant change to Thunder, Lightning, Strike is the promotion of "We Just Won't Be Defeated" and "Hold Yr Terror Close", formerly both B-sides, to the major league roster. Even this switch isn't all that disorienting, as "Defeated" adds a fresh cheerleader track to break up the mostly instrumental middle, and "Terror" offers a glimpse of the band's Children's Workshop twee side amidst the swirl of drum breaks and marching band blasts.

So the main point of this comparative review is that, well, there really is no comparison to be made. The Go! Team, rather skillfully, navigated the treacherous waters of sample clearance and remastering to prepare a domestic version of Thunder, Lightning, Strike no better or worse than the charming original. As such, it's only fitting to affix the same score upon it.