I really wanted to like this album because I do have a soft spot for Goldfinger. Many, many years ago I was really into my ska/punk and bands like Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger were my staple musical diet. ‘Superman’ and the other classics remain fantastic songs, but as I grew up and Goldfinger wanted to change things slightly the pair of us drifted apart. To be honest I struggle to enjoy any band who try and force their beliefs down your neck and sadly Goldfinger have done that recently in terms of animal rights and meat eating.
‘Hello Destiny’ welcomes Charlie back to the fold and shows a welcome shift in musical direction back to the band’s earlier style. And it suits them for the most part – ‘One More Time’ and ‘Get Up’ are energetic and fun and it sounds like the band on top form again. The bad news is that ‘Hello Destiny’ is wildly inconsistent, with good tracks swamped by some outrageously bad duffers that should never have been committed to tape. ‘Handjobs For Jesus’ is dreadful, while ‘The Only One’ is also abysmal.
When Goldfinger up the pace, as they do on ‘How Do You Do It’ they sound brilliant again. But when tracks are interspersed with dodgy songs like ‘War’ it makes for uneasy listening. They’re still one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen and when that energy is translated to CD they remain a fantastic band. Sadly there are polar opposites of quality on this record, ranging from the sublime to the seriously crap. ‘Hello Destiny’ is good in places, but not good enough to be a complete welcome return.