Vacation

The Go-Go's: Belinda Carlisle (vocals); Charlotte Caffey (guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Jane Wiedlin (guitar, background vocals); Gina Schock (drums, percussion, background vocals); Kathy Valentine (bass, background vocals). Additional personnel: Steve Berlin (saxophone). Recorded at Sunset Sound and Studio 55, Hollywood, California and Indigo Ranch, Malibu, California. Digitally remastered by Doug Schwartz (Audio Mechanics, Los Angeles, California). Confronted with the massive success of their first album, the Go-Go's decided to play around a little. For their second album, VACATION, they moved further away from their punk roots, but didn't head directly toward the pop charts. Instead, they turned more to surf rock (see "Beatnik Beach" in particular) and incorporated more elements of '60s girl-groups into their style. Belinda Carlisle's singing is much more controlled here than on the band's debut, and is especially effective on tracks like "We Don't Get Along" and "The Way You Dance." Standouts include Jane Wiedlin's "Girl of 100 Lists," with its ringing guitar and Charlotte Caffey's fuzzed-out keyboards; the punchy "Get Up and Go"; with some wicked Gina Schock drums; and "This Old Feeling," a rolling, cheerful song complete with a sax solo and singalong "do do-do" backup vocals. The clear winner, though, is the title track, a classy workout for Carlisle full of reverberating guitars and keyboards, with Schock's drumming holding the center in place. Though not as wholly energetic as their debut album, VACATION is clearly the sound of a band experimenting with its newfound success.