Late aboard the new rave bandwagon, New Young Pony Club staked out a unique niche as the most slappable band in pop with their hackle-rising 2008 debut, Fantastic Playroom. The advance word on the follow up was that, having been ditched by their label, the quintet had grown up and gone all Warp Records on us. In fact, NYPC 2.0 is essentially a mildly less irritating twist on their previous incarnation: the Little Boots-esque ‘Chaos’ sees Tahita Bulmer still giving it the full gobby frontwoman; ‘Lost A Girl’ has aspirations towards moody euro-tronica; yet the yomping melodies and too-obvious-by-a-long-chalk chorus remind you of nothing so much as NYPC breakout ‘Ice Cream’. Admittedly, the record eventually settles into a somewhat bleaker mindset, with washes of chilly synth and micro-house beats suggesting that Bulmer and company seem at least open to the possibility of there being life beyond Shoreditch. A brave progression rather than the full-blooded makeover we’d hoped for, The Optimist suggests that those who believe NYPC are a band reborn may be guilty of irrational exuberance.
Key Track: ‘Chaos’a