There comes a point in every band's career where fans begin to expect less and less, as if greatness can be achieved only once, maybe twice in life. An apt example would be U2, a band that had perhaps its greatest moment with The Joshua Tree, an album which came out long before the bombastic concepts and prop-laden stage shows that followed the less-acclaimed subsequent releases of Zooropa and Pop. In what might have been the twilight of a career, however, U2's latest, All That You Can't Leave Behind, won the band a Brit Award and produced one of this year's finest singles, "Beautiful Day."

While God Bless the Go-Go's isn't likely to launch a hit single anywhere near the proportion of "Beautiful Day," it does find the band almost back where it started, as several of the songs sound as if they could have been recorded during the Beauty and the Beat era. The Go-Go's first all-original proper album since 1984's Talk Show, God Bless the Go-Go's boasts titles like "Stuck in My Car" and "Kissing Asphalt," and while the production is notably up-to-date, the songwriting is decidedly girlish, but never immature. Revived, one might say--all about living and growing up in Los Angeles, a subject that informs nearly every Go-Go's song to date.

Guitarist Charlotte Caffey hopes fans will appreciate both the maturity and the freedom to do what came naturally: "When we made Talk Show we were saying, 'We want to be taken seriously!' It was silly because about four years after that, Kathy [Valentine, the Go-Go's bassist] and I were at a B-52's concert and we were like, 'What is our problem?' There's nothing wrong with being the band we are." While Caffey cites the Ramones to be a major influence on the Go-Go's, she recognizes that her band influenced many bands as well: "Bands like Green Day paid homage to us and said that we inspired them. It's like the torch was passed, and now it's being passed back to us so we can kick some ass and have some fun."