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mythologized hometown . Written by Caffey and bassist Kathy Valentine , the song is propelled by Jane Wiedlin ’ s chugging guitar . Valentine ’ s “ Apology ” has one of the album ’ s finest hooks , recalling the type of winsome cowpunk melody offered by John Doe of fellow L . A . punks X ( not to mention a sublime , countermelodic bass line ). The frustrated howl of “ Stuck in My Car ” exposes one of the realities of life in L . A ., although the grind of daily traffic is relatable for working stiffs from coast to coast . Accompanied by stinging surf-pop guitar , Belinda Carlisle offers the good , cathartic advice to “ turn the radio up and scream along .” The ballad “ Here You Are ” fits somewhat oddly among the generally rowdy set , with a soaring pop chorus that bears the fingerprint of principal writer ( and Brian Adams collaborator ) Jim Vallance . It ’ s a fine standalone song that suits singer Carlisle ’ s pop acumen , but it fits into the band ’ s overall catalog in the same vein of saccharine hits notched by other hungry rockers who sought songwriting help outside their own ranks . Think of Cheap Trick ’ s “ The Flame ,” Aerosmith ’ s “ I Don ’ t Want to Miss a Thing ,” or The Bangles ’ “ Eternal Flame ” and you ’ re in the ballpark . Drummer Gina Schock ’ s “ Automatic Rainy Day ” is a delicious , poisoned-pen rocker that could have perfectly suited Iggy Pop circa Blah Blah Blah . “ I am pavement bound at the speed of sound ,” sings Carlisle on the raging pop of Caffey ’ s “ Kissing Asphalt ,” with energy reminiscent

of The Bangles ’ “ Hero Takes a Fall .” “ Insincere ” is melancholy jangle-pop . Schock plays a pounding foundation for her band during “ Sonic Superslide ,” as the band joyfully declare themselves to be “ your solar sisters , here to make you shine .” “ Throw Me a Curve ” is a bodypositive punk-pop celebration of real women over magazine stereotypes . “ Microthin is way too in ,” sings Carlisle . “ Talking Myself Down ” ( co-written with the Bangles ’ Susannah Hoffs ) includes a piano break by Caffey reminiscent of “ Head Over Heels .” “ Daisy Chain ” is a sentimental summary of the band ’ s backstory that will ring true to anyone who has watched the documentary film while cheering for the band ’ s reconciliation and redemption . In this writer ’ s opinion , God Bless the Go-Go ’ s surpasses Vacation in the band ’ s catalog to rank second only to the Go-Go ’ s groundbreaking and era-defining classic debut Beauty and the Beat .

– Jeff Elbel

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gonna know about that stuff , so you can ’ t write songs about those things anymore . So you end up writing about people getting ill , or people getting better , or people dying . That subject matter is in your head , so it ’ s gonna come out . And you lose a few friends along the way , and my brother in law died before we finished writing the record , so that kinda crops up in songs . But I mean , more people that I know have died in my 50 ’ s than have died during all the preceding decades of my life . It ’ s weird . It ’ s really weird . Especially when people of your own generation are dying — that ’ s really surreal . And my mom ’ s still around , but my dad died of COVID about a year ago . But that was a blessing in disguise , because he was in a nursing home for eight fucking years . So that was actually a positive thing . But I ’ m not looking forward to my mom dying , at all .

IE : So what ’ s your take on mortality , then ? JC : Well , a lot of my friends said that when you get to 50 …. because I didn ’ t particularly expect to get to 50 . But when I got to 50 , I felt quite jubilant . I thought , “ Well , I ’ ve made it this far — that ’ s quite good going !” And unless you ’ ve had a really awful life , you get to 50 and you think , “ Now that ’ s a pretty good life , you know ?” So one would like to think that if you then get , say , a cancer diagnosis , that you ’ re not gonna be gnashing and wailing with anger and distress . But I probably still will be , even though I know I ’ ve had a great life — I should probably move aside and let other people have a go . But — that being said — nobody wants to know that they ’ re gonna die , under any circumstances , you know ?

IE : What exactly is “ Mockingbird , Copy Me Now ” about ? JC : “ Mockingbird ” is about a brow-beaten husband whose spouse constantly mimics him to take the piss out of him , so he eventually decides that he ’ s gonna kill himself , because he thinks that she ’ ll copy him doing that , and then he ’ ll get his revenge on her .

IE : “ Second Staircase ,” for some reason , reminded of the great Mary Roberts Rinehart locked-room mystery “ The Spiral Staircase .” The song itself feels like a murder mystery . JC : Yeah . It ’ s a bit like “ Clue ,” isn ’ t it ? It ’ s got that atmosphere about it , and the music has got that murder-mystery thing about it . But for a lot of the songs I wrote on this Del Amitri album — I pulled a lot of things out of a notebook that was full of titles and spare verses that I ’ d never really found a use for . And just because I was writing for Del Amitri , they suddenly found a wee kind of home . So I just had that title . And usually when I write a title , I know what the song is gonna be , so the song will get written within a few weeks of coming up with a title . But that particular notebook was filled with titles that , well , I didn ’ t know what they were . But they sounded nice . So when I was doing the writing for Fatal Mistake , I would look at the titles , and some days you just suddenly knew what they were about . It had just taken me 17 years to find out what that sequence of words means .

rial , you seem to be considering humanity ’ s narcissistic obsession with the technology that powers their social media , to the point where they can ’ t see our inexorable march — or gallop — to our own extinction . JC : Yeah . Just constantly looking to the middle of your phone . What I find extraordinary is the rate of change that we ’ ve recently gone through . I mean , things in our parents ’ generation , they were changing fast , but they weren ’ t changing anywhere near this fast . And it ’ s almost like the rate of change itself is just shaking the foundations of the planet — it ’ s shaking the foundations of society , it ’ s shaking the ecology , the environment , and it ’ s as if the physics of the universe just cannot cope with this constant redoubling of data and intelligence and computing power , and the way that impacts how we socialize . So on the one hand , you say that untrammeled Capitalism appears to be destroying this planet . But at the same time , just the rate of change is destroying the planet , because nobody knows how to control any of this . Mark Zuckerberg has no fucking clue what he ’ s doing — all he ’ s doing is trying to grow a company and connect people . He has no idea that his company could be undermining the social fabric of society , because none of this has ever been done before . These big tech guys have no idea what they ’ re doing , and that ’ s why they ’ re all building rockets to the moon — they ’ re all thinking , “ Oh shit ! This is bizarre ! We didn ’ t expect this to happen !” One day I ’ ll be reading a long article about investment and climate-change-related technology , and I ’ ll think , “ Maybe there is hope for the future of human civilization in the next few hundred years .” And then other days you think , “ No , we ’ re heading into hell . And we ’ re heading into hell at an incredibly fast rate .” I was a big ** Popular Science reader , and I remember reading some Popular Science book about Antarctica , and a lot of these scientists down at the South Pole — who are taking measurements of the ice and realizing how much the anthropocene is destroying the equilibrium of the planet — are going , “ You know , you guys up there are fucked . We ’ re kind of okay down here , living on Mars in our survival pods . But inevitably , this environmental devastation will lead very quickly to civil unrest , and to wars and mass migrations and worse .” It ’ s all been predicted , and it ’ s been going on for 20 years . Scientists fucking predicted it , but all these politicians — because they ’ re so desperately trying to get re-elected — are simply pretending it ’ s not happening . They ’ re just liars , total fucking liars . I mean , claiming that they can decarbonize by 2050 is just a lie .

IE : I ’ m amazed this record didn ’ t turn out even darker . JC : Ha ! Well , we kind of selected the songs for their pop appeal . So there were quite a few things that didn ’ t make it onto the record because it was just too fucking grim ! There was one called “ The Risks of Rome ,” which is about rich people on a yacht , just sort of fiddling while Rome burns . And there ’ s one called “ Picking up Lots that Drowned ,” about death . And there ’ s one called “ Stillborn ,” about people marching into the future with optimism , but to their certain slaughter . Heh-heh . They all might end up on a solo record one day !