Jive Electro 01241-41753-2

The first time I caught glimpse of the artwork of Groove Armada's "Goodbye
Country (Hello Nightclub)" I thought to myself, "this should be an
interesting listening experience". However, it turned out to be quite the
opposite. The first track, Suncatcher, may be the best on the disc.
The song starts out in a very spacey manner but settles down into a tight
hip-hop joint. Suncatcher features Gang Starr affiliate Jeru the
Damaja on the beat box. The song contains an interesting pattern of
orchestra hits accompanied by a thick bass line. Hoping the rest of the
album would be dope like Suncatcher, I was instead faced with
disappointment after disappointment.

The second song, Superstylin’, starts out with a spacey beat driven
groove which is ruined when the vocals kick in, horribly resembling the
reggae side of Brad Nowell. The song then turns into European dance club
rave-induced flotsam. The third song – Drifted – I kind of
enjoyed. The mellowness was nice for the most part, but – like the bulk of
songs on this album – the rave-induced beats kicked in and ruined the tune.

The last highlight on Groove Armada's sophomore effort is Little By
Little, a folk-funk fused piece featuring the grizzly vocals of
Woodstock veteran Richie Havens. The rest of the album is just one big
computer generated blob of occasional highs and a million lows. The
electronic experimentation of Groove Armada is appreciated but not anything
out of this world. If you like dance party electronica,
this release is definitely for you. However if, like me, you enjoy intense
compositions and albums recorded with real instruments, then Groove Armada
is not for you.