!!! Is In The House

!!! are the one supreme hipster band. And it’s not just the impossible to pronounce name. No, it’s also the detached (self) irony, the (uber) bored voice, the Studio 54 flair, the song titles like All My Heroes Are Weirdos. But with every album, !!! have proven they are also one of the best bands out there, that they are worth every ounce of love, that they are true artists making art that gets people grooving. In their all-too-loved style, the New Yorkers tell us it’s high time we filled every corner of that 70s retro bar and dance like there is no tomorrow via their newest album, Strange Weather, Isn’t It?

Which is, without doubt, a 100% !!! album. Nic Offer’s songwriting is just as irreverent as always. He still seems just as sarcastic singing about random things. He says it’s a good thing. But it’s a good thing he likes being alone and you can’t help but wonder if he isn’t throwing it in your face just like that, reminding you what an ass you are. His voice, his bored voice, might be out of tone or flat at times. It is still one of the funkiest out there. The female vocals swing and swag, making each song more soulful, adding a Groove Is In The House air to Wannagain Wannagain and turning Steady As The Sidewalk Cracks into Hearts Of Hearts little but really badass sister. And hell yeah, Anita Ward must be really jealous of these kids.

By now, it is indeed obvious !!! have their trademark sound. Strange Weather is the band we’ve all been loving for so long. But their ready-for-the-dancefloor sound is more than just some guitars and funky vocals. It’s also the saxophones that are used without a shred of irony and that are by no means a faux-pas in !!! land. The fuzzy guitars that are not afraid to bounce back and forth. The naughty bass line that feels each song with tones of sexuality. The way Even Judas Gave Jesus A Kiss and The Hammer are pieces of heavy sonic experimentation and still make you groove on your chair and pray that the DJ in your local bar will play this the next time you go there.

What’s more important about Strange Weather, Isn’t It? is that it is a solid album, not one moment that might let you down, bored you or make you want to skip the track. It’s the kind of album that you can’t help but play head to bottom and groove under imagined strobe lights. And while !!! don’t really need to prove the world anything, at least not after 2007’s Myth Takes, it sure feels great to hear them trying to convince you once more Studio 54 is not dead.