{"id":45879,"date":"2020-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-get-gos-action-hour\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:31:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:31:30","slug":"the-get-gos-action-hour","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-get-gos-action-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"The Get Gos Action Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rock opera is by now a venerable institution, a creative leap taken by bands from The Who to Green Day, with varying degrees of success. More unique is the \u201cpower-popera\u201d \u2013 as Paul Melancon has coined this album\u2019s form — an album of (mostly) power-pop songs telling the story of the rather Scooby-Doo-ish animated Saturday-morning-cartoon band The Get-Gos. The only thing that feels remotely similar in my experience is The Poppin\u2019 Wheelies<\/i><\/a>, an early 2000s creation of the Gin Blossoms\u2019 Robin Wilson.<\/p>\n

On The Get-Gos Action Hour!<\/i> singer-songwriter-guitarist Melancon uses his imaginary \u201970s cartoon show as the frame for a set of songs that sometimes feel like they\u2019re advancing a narrative, but more often feel like they\u2019re connected as much by vibe and mood as storyline. That might sound scattershot in theory, but it hangs together nicely in execution. <\/p>\n

As any self-respecting made-up cartoon series should, The Get Gos Action Hour!<\/i> kicks off with a bouncy, catchy 40-second theme song. First full track \u201cPermanent Makeup\u201d then sets the foundation for the album\u2019s punchy-yet-cerebral vibe as Melancon and his tight band \u2013 Jonny Daly (guitars), Lee Kennedy (bass), Pete McDade (drums), and Debra Tala (keys & vocals) \u2013 power through sharp verses and potent choruses about the emotional masks we put on for one another.<\/p>\n

If that sounds a touch hi-brow lyrically for an album built around cartoon characters, it really just signals what a clever and playful host Melancon is, as the band segues right into \u201cRobot World,\u201d a sweet, goofy novelty that deploys guitar and keyboard effects atop a robotic rhythm section to pull you the rest of the way into its kitschy world. Next up, \u201cThis Shaky Lullaby\u201d offers an expansive ballad mixing Beatlesque guitars with Broadway dynamics, before things get frantic again with the simultaneously airy and urgent \u201cHyperventilate.\u201d The first half of the album\u2014which is formally divided into Part 1 and 2, like a vinyl LP\u2014finishes with the propulsive yet foreboding \u201cThe New Decay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part 2 opens on a more somber note, as Melancon follows a billowy retro ballad (\u201cSt. Cecilia\u201d) with a spare acoustic rumination (\u201cWhen Do We Get Smaller?\u201d). The energetic vibe reasserts with \u201cFitzcarraldo,\u201d retelling the plot of the 1982 film of the same name<\/a>, about a late 19th-century would-be rubber baron who convinces a group of Peruvian natives to help him drag a massive steamship through the jungle separating two rivers. I can\u2019t explain what it\u2019s doing here any better than I can explain Fitzcarraldo\u2019s mission, but the song is solidly executed.<\/p>\n

Things get full-on strange with \u201cMareaci\u00f3n,\u201d an 11-minute suite that feels like a power-pop group abruptly decided to jump ahead from Revolver<\/i> and try their hand at Dark Side Of The Moon<\/i>. The five-part piece evolves from a plaintive acoustic-and-vocals opening into a throbbing, far heavier second section that finds Melancon declaring that \u201cThe darkness is just the distance between the stars\u201d as the band spins wilder and wilder circles around him. And then it all falls back into a gentle rhythm for the airy, soulful third section, which trails along pleasantly before erupting into a hurricane of rolling synths and wailing guitars that eventually recedes into a reprise of the acoustic opening. Wait, what? But for all the seeming disconnection with what came before, \u201cMareaci\u00f3n\u201d adds up to a fine bit of genre-hopping prog.<\/p>\n

The album finishes strong with keening, expansive ballad \u201cHere And Now I Was\u201d and the tight, anthemic \u201cThe Answer Is Yes,\u201d a sort of manifesto to sincerity and positivity that stays ringing in your ears even as the closing notes fade away. <\/p>\n

The glue holding this set of songs together is the strength of the arrangements, which veer from psychedelia to airy ballads to punchy, spiky power-pop, all rendered by Melancon and band with both precision and infectious enthusiasm. The Get-Gos Action Hour!<\/i> achieves what any good album should: it takes you on a journey and introduces you to intriguing characters and situations along the way. And while I don\u2019t feel like I came away with a clear understanding of how all the pieces of the narrative fit together, I also don\u2019t think it matters. Charming, energetic, thoughtful and inventive, The Get-Gos Action Hour!<\/i> is animated in all the best ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10510],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45879","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paul-melancon","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51938,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45879\/revisions\/51938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45879"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45879"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}