The Go (Skunkhour album)

The Go
Studio album by
Skunkhour
ReleasedMay 2001
RecordedVelvet Sound, Sydney
GenreIndie rock
Length44:34
LabelGrudge Records/Universal
ProducerSteve James, Skunkhour
Skunkhour chronology
Chin Chin
(1997) 		The Go
(2001) 		Essential Skunkhour
(2010)
Singles from Album
  1. "Stadium"
    Released: 1999
  2. "Home"
    Released: 1999
  3. "Kick in the Door"
    Released: 2000
  4. "Gold Radiation"
    Released: 2001
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Daily Telegraph[1]
Sunday Telegraph[2]
Sunday Herald Sun[3]

The Go is the fourth and final studio album by Australian band Skunkhour. It was released in 2001. "Home" was released as a single in 1999 and two further singles were taken from the album—"Gold Radiation" (April 2001) and "Kick in the Door".

Singer Aya Larkin said the band, which had been forced to abandon a European touring schedule after being dropped by Sony Music in 1998, had been overtaken by a sense of despondency and found it hard to write. "Chin Chin didn't go as well as we hoped it would and we felt the band's future had been discounted. It brought about a period where we questioned if we wanted to write together any more. We had a year and a half where we faffed around, tried to write, scrapped 15 songs. There'd be months where we didn't even get together to try stuff."[4]

The "Home" single, he said, "just kind of happened. We released it as an independent single to see whether or not we wanted to keep going, and people really liked the song. We approached the rest of our writing in a new way, and from that came this new album."[5]

The Go was recorded and mixed in kitchens, studios and INXS bassist Garry Gary Beers' studio in Mangrove Mountain on the New South Wales Central Coast[4] and completed before the band was signed to Universal Music.[6]

In November 2001, six months after the release of The Go, Skunkhour disbanded, frustrated by a lack of support from Universal, which was experiencing upheavals in Australia. Larkin said the difficulties with the label meant the band was unable to maximise its opportunities. "We decided that we'd rather move on now and look at some other possibilities while we're still drawing big crowds," he told the Brisbane Sunday Mail. "Unfortunately, the last album was only heard on Triple J and some community stations, so we didn't really reach the mainstream audience with it. This was despite our hopes that the album might have taken us to another level. It was given great reviews and we really thought the music got us back in touch with the fans. But overall, we just wanted to go out on a high. We didn't want to overstay our welcome."[7]

  1. ^ Dino Scatena, The Daily Telegraph, 3 May 2001.
  2. ^ Kathy McCabe, Sunday Telegraph, 13 May 2001.
  3. ^ Graeme Hammond, Sunday Herald Sun, 20 May 2001.
  4. ^ a b Holmes, Peter (1 April 2001). "Man of the hour". Sun Herald. Sydney.
  5. ^ Dwyer, Michael (11 May 2001). "Happy hour". The Age. Melbourne.
  6. ^ Mengel, Noel (18 May 2001). "Soul kind of feeling". Courier-Mail. Brisbane.
  7. ^ Yorke, Ritchie (18 November 2001). "Just one last tour before they go". Sunday Mail. Brisbane. p. 63.