The B52s: 'Funplex'

The B-52s shouldn't be launching a comeback in 2008, but, then again, a group that wrote songs about wigs, amateur counterfeiters and poodles called Quiche Lorraine shouldn't have sold 20m records. The self-styled "World's Greatest Party Band" release their first studio album in 16 years next month, but have they recaptured that old kitsch-pop magic?

Lead single 'Funplex' finds them sounding much as they did in their eighties heyday - the production's a little crisper, the guitars are a bit punkier, but all the staple B-52s elements are here: Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson's girlish harmonies, Fred Schneider's camp attack "vocalising" and a modern art gallery's worth of randomly-placed hooks. Not a radical move forward then, but it's life-affirming to hear them sounding this vibrant 30 years after 'Rock Lobster'.


> Click here to watch the 'Funplex' video