XX Teens - 'Welcome To Goon Island' (Mute) Released 28/07/08

You’d have thought a music journo would have long ago lost the habit of judging books by their covers. You’d be wrong. It’s impossible not to make judgement over the cheesy cover art, the gaudily title of ‘Welcome To Goon Island’ or indeed the cheesy dream sequence intro to ‘The Way We Were’. Yet XX teens have a knack for the unexpected. In fact, if you like to study at the school of the unconventional then XX Teens will be the ones with all the gold stars.
   
Straying the fine line between art and garage rock XX Teens very much studied in the class of The Velvet Underground – from the Lou Reed-esque vocals on ‘B-54’ to the more freaky guitar parts on ‘My Favourite Hat’.
   
From this approach alone XX Teens come out with some grabbing stuff. ‘Only You’ is a slick floor stomper, likely to collect fans like a man with a shotgun collects fish from a barrel. ‘Ba (Ba-Ba-Ba)’ in the meantime continues the feel good factor with a warm sludgey mexicano approach to the dancey likes of The Rapture.
 
Yet if their main schooling in rock and roll is solid then XX Teens really excite with their musical extra curricular interests so to say. And there is some truse genre mixing going on here. Try the dance driven sitar-laced ‘Sun Comes Up’? Or the Jamican brass band/hip-hop take on ‘Little Green Bag’ riff. It really works and is simply wow.

Despite the experimentation there’s a spacious feel to the recording. None of the songs really get up in your face unlike the debut albums of some of XX Teens’ contemporaries. But this is the appeal of ‘Goon Island’. You feel like you’re going for a ride with the band, not being dragged along by your hair by them.

If there is any criticism its that there might be a little too much variation and maybe more focus could have been given to the weaker parts (2 minute anti-war dialogue at the end – good bye!) But even with this considered, XX Teens are an adequate contender for best new band. And Goon Island more fills the summer lull left by bands on tour. A great band with good diversity, this is certainly one of the better debuts of the year to wrap your ears around.