Gainsville quartet Against Me! are likely to ruffle some feathers in the punk underground with this, their 4^th album. You see the band have signed to a major label (boo hiss!) brought de-rigeur alternative producer Butch Vig on board (even more boo hiss....) and delivered a damn fine album to boot that will possibly get them a more mainstream fan base (boo hiss to the max.......). 

You see punk fans can be a fickle lot, we complain bitterly that the better bands don't get any exposure but then when finally there's some long overdue attention from the media on “the scene” we complain bitterly that the bands who benefit from this are selling out. Please stop! Its not big and its not clever and most of all it doesn't help the bands. 

With this latest release Against Me! Have taken the core elements of their sound, expanded on it, and added some new infuences and , in my opinion, have delivered their best record yet.Yes there's still ramshackle folk inflected punk aplenty. Check out the rollicking grooves of “Up the Cuts” or “White People For Peace” but when you add to this the relative inventiveness of the Franz Ferdinand-esque “Stop” or the lambada inflected bass to “The Ocean” that resolves to a brief snippet of the riff from Bob Marleys “Could You Be Loved” (there's even a  “ba ba baa da da” backing vocal chorus in “Thrash Unreal”) then you have a record that's fun and upbeat and provides a perfect counterpoint to the often vicious lyrics. 

New Wave may possibly be a bit on the short side, the ten tracks have flown by in just about 30 minutes or so, but that just gives you even more reason to hit the repeat button, and that, dear reader is something I suggest you do, and often!