Teenagers, The - Reality Check Review

The whiff of suspicion that greets The Teenagers’ debut began with ‘Homecoming’. Released as a single last May, ‘Reality Check’’s opener crept up out of the gutter from nowhere, sleazing around like an X-rated ‘Summer Nights’. Infused with the spirit of Serge Gainsbourg, the Gitanes-stained soundscape was seemingly dreamt up by a pervert in a beret and dirty mac, leafing through a grubby copy of Lolita. Released on Merok (early home of Klaxons and Crystal Castles) and shrouded in mystery, it bounced in like the best hipster joke since ‘LDN Is A Victim’....full text There is a black hole where this album's soul should be. An infinite, amoral void which sucks in all the intellectually bankrupt detritus of contemporary pop culture. Look, there's the first series of "Skins" being pulled in right now. There's Nicole Richie. There's Vice magazine. The London borough of Hoxton. A 19-year-old blogger in skinny jeans. A rock star's daughter, staggering out of the Punk nightclub in a £3000 dress. And, hey, right on time, here's three twentysomethings from Paris, with the band they started out as a joke....full text After a decade as one of New Wave's quirkiest pleasures, the B-52s burst into the mainstream with 1989's "Cosmic Thing" but went on to release only one more album of new material, and that from a reduced lineup that couldn't replicate some of the act's best previous qualities.

Once again a quartet for its first new disc in 16 years, the band reassembles its signature elements and evaporates concerns about age by showing some fresh spring-loaded party pop....full text