Black Kids - Rookie (Not Fussed Records) 

Add Date: 08/29
Focus Tracks: 1, 3, 11
FCC: 4, 5, 9
Format: College, Modern Rock Specialty

Artist Info: Black Kids were just a bar band kicking around Jacksonville, Florida-born when Pitchfork stumbled upon 4 songs on the band’s Myspace Page in 2007 and included them in their Best New Music round up. The next year saw the release of their full length, Partie Traumatic (which broke the Top 5 in the U.K.) and its attendant world tours, festival performances, and late-night-TV appearances. Lead single “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You” soundtracked everything from sweaty club nights to blockbuster movies, and is still being spun (and licensed for TV and film) to this day.

What took Black Kids nine years to release their second album? Burn out, side projects and other assorted distractions can be blamed for the lack of progress, but most of all “I couldn’t write a chorus,” says lead singer Reggie Youngblood. “And for a band that worships The Chorus, this was problematic.”

Thankfully the band has rediscovered their center of gravity, and the result is the hook-y, chorus-laden Rookie. Like the band’s 2008 debut, Partie Traumatic, the album is a glorious pastiche of pop history, featuring exuberant synth pop, Britpop, indie rock and other assorted influences, nestling into a groove somewhere between The Cure and LCD Soundsystem.