Desaparecidos – Payola

When the last Desaparecidos album surfaced in 2002, emo wunderkind Conor Oberst was only 22. Still, their ideas were fully formed: The 'Disappeared’ produced a Pinkerton­-esque rock album that projected its self-loathing towards the pitfalls and vanities of suburban American life.

This long-awaited follow-up feels less coherently thematic, but 13 years on Conor’s still trying to make sense of the world by railing against it – everything from slacktivism to Sheriff Joe Arpaio to the music industry gets a kicking. Murdering his folk career all over again, Payola is mostly good fun, particularly in the grip of furious, anti-establishment anthems like The Underground Man and Te Amo Camila Vallejo.

Not every track is gold and some are cackhanded – 10 Steps Behind questions religious headscarves, and it ain’t pretty – but even so, this existential howl against cruelty and injustice lends itself to some admirably infectious punk rock with enjoyable delusions of new wave grandeur.