The Aquabats – Charge!! (Nitro)

Look at me, look at me, look at me, I’m a winner!

It’s just as simple as that.

Don’t you agree, don’t you agree

Don’t you agree that I’m a winner?

You just can’t argue with that!—”Look At Me, I’m A Winner”

Forget the costumes, the goofy monikers, the monster battles, and their abortive attempt to become a Saturday morning kid’s show. The most improbable ska band in history is back, and they’re only doing one thing– kicking ass with some of the tightest, most uncompromising power pop ever crafted. They’ve reduced the ska by about 20% while boosting the rock, trimmed just a tiny bit of wacky off, and (wisely) kept the psychotronic levels exactly the same. The result is the best Aquabats album yet.

The songs are classic, off-center Aquabats, odes to doomed beach romances, giant robot apes, and of course, anthems to their own awesomeness.

…And it makes you want to don a helmet and jump through plasterboard walls to clobber bad guys (who are helpfully dressed in striped shirts and bandit masks). It’ll make you 11 years old again. You’ll want to jump in the air and pump your fist, do back flips and slam dance, and you should. If you don’t, you’re a soulless mope who doesn’t know how to have fun.

Charge!! is one of the best rock albums of the year, and it’s definitely the best Aquabats album ever.