The B-52s: 'Funplex'

If any aging rockers can pull off a comeback this year, it's The B-52s. The two traditional stumbling blocks of the reunion tour (and single, and album…), namely the stale whiff of anachronism and a crippling lack of dignity, simply don't apply to them. With their fondness for fifties kitsch and defiantly odd sci-fi-surf-synth-pop sound, they never fit into any particular scene in the first place; if anything, they were as out of place in their eighties heyday as they are now. As for dignity, well, it was never the prize attribute of the Atlanta five-piece, a group who sang unselfconsciously about parties going out of bounds, rock lobsters and "funky little shacks" with tin roofs… rusted.

Now in their fifties, the band's four surviving members (original guitarist Ricky Wilson died of an AIDS-related illness in 1985) have made an album together for the first time since 1989. Alongside Steve Osborne, the producer who helped New Order to age gracefully on 2001's Get Ready, they've eschewed reinvention in favour of giving their classic sound a sleek, subtly modern update. The guitar riffs are tougher these days, and the keyboard programming is a little less rudimentary, but everything here sounds authentically B-52s, even if Fred Schneider's camp, dry bark has weathered slightly since the days of 'Love Shack'.

Gratifyingly, the group who styled itself "The World's Greatest Party Band" is still up for a good time. The title track gives mall culture a sharp poke in the eye and 'Dancing Now' finds Schneider coming to terms with an errant lover, but Funplex is largely obsessed with three things: sex, space and, most of all, sex in space. 'Love In The Year 3000', a song that sounds pretty much exactly as you'd expect, sums proceedings up nicely. "Tentative tentacles are grabbing me," Schneider squeals, half-mocking, half-elated. "We're making love in zero gravity!" The B-52s are clearly having a ball throughout, and, for the most part, so do we. Well, who wouldn't enjoy an invitation to "do a white hot shimmy in a lurex gown"?

The caveat? After an opening stretch that's hard, fast and more than a little giddy, Funplex runs out of great tunes. At least two songs – the obscenely catchy title track and the shimmering synth-pop of 'Juliet of the Spirits' – rank as B-52s classics, but twice as many again fail to take off. In this respect, Funplex is a typical B-52s album: patchier than a pirate convention, but with enough flashes of inspiration to keep us interested. Fortunately, the lack of quality control isn't enough to capsize the band's comeback. As Schneider barks, "There's a G-spot, pull the car over!" on 'Ultraviolet', a garage rock riff blistering behind him, we're reminded that no other band would think - or want, in all likelihood - to make music like this. Funplex may not be a classic album, but it's great to have The B-52s back.