The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts

If you’re one of those people who like to meet their hangovers head on, blasting out the festive badness before it can settle on your soul, then The Go! Team’s third album is the record for you. This is relentless and unapologetically upbeat, energetic and good fun stuff. The chaotic promise of earlier releases is back in spades; the Blaxploitation samples, the scuzzy guitar, the lo-fi ethic; something about it screams of a US schoolyard back in the sunny seventies, the kind of place that may never have existed outside of some cool kids’ imaginations.

Then there’s the tunes: a cast of extras including Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof and Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino have been brought in on some off-kilter melodic pop killers; Ready To Go Steady is the Supremes on helium, Secretary Song (featuring Matsuzaki) strikes with an odd infectiousness and Buy Nothing Day (with Costentino) plays like a fresh breeze. Importantly, it’s a fun note to see a New Year in on. [PJ Meiklem]