Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

The second full-length from Brooklyn's Vivian Girls is a bit like a Woody Allen film: the plot has moved on, but the main ingredients remain resolutely the same. There are Ritalin-fuelled riffs kicked out with reckless abandon, machine-gun snare hits and shimmering harmonies embedded in their grungy soundscape - and the one-take production style is apparent throughout. Of the highlights, On Desert's high-pitched repetitive guitar lines quickly distinguish it from other songs on the album. I'm Not Asleep reaffirms the vocals' prettiness; the call-and-response singing shows the band off at its shambolic best. Moodier than its predecessor, Everything Goes Wrong may not hold quite the same instant appeal as their 2008 debut, though the lyrical content still dwells almost exclusively on matters of the heart. Yet this is unselfconscious bash-bash guitar pop, and though the Vivian Girls continue to divide opinion, their latest pile of playful punk may prove hard to resist.