‘Invincible’ opens OK Go’s second album Oh No, released in 2005. The track itself was released as a single in 2006 and was accompanied by its music video (above) where the band plays whilst various items and objects explode in a split screen.

I haven’t listened to that album in full in a while. For a brief period in 2006, I was really into OK Go. I had only seen the videos for ‘A Million Ways’ and ‘Do What You Want’ at that time. But I was convinced that they were my new favourite band. I just wanted to watch their videos on repeat. YouTube was just about starting at the time, but the video for ‘Invincible’ was online. The tune and video was what pushed me over. I had to get the album for myself. And I did. It’s gathering dust on the shelf in my room.

The album reminds me of those years. But I still enjoy ‘Invincible’ now as much as I did then. It’s a three and a half minute track with some chunky, clunky guitar riffs that are something of a staple throughout the whole record. That may be in part due to the work of Swedish producer Tore Johansson, who had helped Franz Ferdinand create some riffs of their own on their self-titled album in 2004. Damian Kulash, Jr. comes in with a silky lead vocal, interrupted by piercing slides up the guitar neck, singing about a superhero-type figure who is able to defeat enemies with his high-temperature atom-smashing laser vision. It’s a weird one to open an album with subject-wise but after what was a clean and very power-pop influenced debut album, ‘Invincible’ is most certainly a great way to show the audience the direction the band was going into.