If you don't know the band OK Go by name, you have probably seen them at least once before. It is the crazy band that is famously known for dancing on slow-moving treadmills to its song "Here It Goes Again" off its second album, Oh No. The video quickly became a viral music video sensation, now with almost 50 million views total (that's more views than people in Canada!). It has been 3 1/2 years since the debut of the video that rocketed OK Go's members into fame and 4 1/2 years since they have come out with a new album. Last Tuesday the long awaited follow-up album, Of the Blue Color of the Sky (produced by The Flaming Lips and MGMT's Dave Fridmann), was released, and it is a very different sound than many fans may be used to. Missing from the 14 tracks are the basic upbeat drums, guitar, indie-rock sound and straining vocals that blasted them into fame, instead replaced with busy-sounding instrumentals the likes of '80s-era synth sounds, guitars with a ton of distortion, echoing falsetto vocals, tambourine, steady bass drum beats and even a little cow bell. The result of this is something unlike anything I had heard before, and even though it was off-putting at first, I grew to really enjoy it.The best way to describe this reinvented OK Go is Prince meets indie pop. From the first to the last song, its catchy dance beats mixed with emotional undertones create a brand new sound that is oddly contagious. Though probably pretty alienating to people looking for a new OK Go album made in the same light as the first two, the disco dance beats fit right in with the new electro-pop culture but still retain the band's individualism. This sound is immediately heard from the Space Invaders-like noises emanating during the first five seconds of the first track of the album-the aptly titled "WTF?" The song is the perfect opening and first single to one of the strangest but more intriguing albums in recent memory. The instrumentals are extremely busy with a lot happening but layer together to sound like a real song instead of just plain noise; a pitfall that must have been hard not to fall into. The feel of the song sets the tone of the album-8-bit '80s bubblegum modern indie synth pop on crack with a musically rare 5/4 time signature to boot. It is a very intense start, making the listener really feel like saying "WTF." As the lyrics say, and many fans probably feel about the album, "I'm trying to get my head around what the f-ck is happening." What is happening, though, is a successful experiment in musical evolution.

The next group of songs on the album follow in the vein of "WTF?". "This too Shall Pass," the second song, called upon the Notre Dame marching band, an entire children's choir and multiple instruments to create another busy but full sound. The next group of tracks follows this path of ultra-catchy, oddly contagious music until the ninth song, "Last Leaf," a short track with only the lead singer's voice and an acoustic guitar. This marks a shift in the album, coming after the entirely computerized vocals of the song "Before the Earth was Round," to a softer side focusing more on heartbreak, though still keeping up with the stranger sounds than usual-just a mellower version of them. Lyrics such as "Can't you love me, can't you love me, how I want please" further reiterate the more emotional feeling on the second part of the album. "Louisiana Island" is the perfect ending to the album as it is the most reminiscent of the band's past music while including electronic themes used throughout the entire album, completing a musical journey. The lyrics from my favorite song on the album, "White Knuckles," summarize this best: "Nothing never doesn't change but nothing changes much, . but maybe it's not so bad, so let your hair down now."

Band member Damien Kulash was quoted as saying, "It has always been our position that the reason you wind up in a rock band is you want to make stuff. You want to do creative things for a living, . [and we have created an album of the] danciest, most anthemic, most heartbroken and honest songs." He couldn't have put it any better. The album is creative beyond anything I have heard and certainly took a couple of listens to get through, but it is also an album that has been on repeat since I started listening to it. Sometimes the music doesn't have to make sense, and sometimes active background listening just works. For OK Go's Of the Blue Color of the Sky, "WTF" is just good enough.