!!! (Chk Chk Chk) - Let It Be Blue (Blue Vinyl)

After two-plus decades of being dance punk’s most reliable provocateurs, !!! remain unpredictable.

The group’s ninth full-length kicks off with ‘Normal People,’ a starkly acoustic introduction where frontman Nic Offer presents an unfamiliarly restrained vocal. From here, Let It Be Blue aligns with the kind of joyously energetic dance music we’ve come to expect from !!!, ‘Normal People’ sets the necessary scene for which !!!'s multiple ideas to unfurl.

Let It Be Blue heralds itself as a “computer record” shaped by file sharing, virtual collaborating, and visions of how crowds would react in lieu of road-testing songs. Considering their reputation for soundtracking sweat-soaked dance floors, !!! didn’t seem to have a problem visualising a party over the past two years, but Let It Be Blue offers the group’s most sparse, streamlined effort to date. According to Offer, the restrictions during recording forced the band to deviate from their standard practice of “crowding everything in and trying to fit as many parts as possible” but Let It Be Blue is far from a minimalist affair. ‘A Little Bit (More)’ opens with a glitchy cavalcade of kick drums, steamrolling into a psychedelic strut on ‘Storm Around The World’ and testing out reggaeton-adjacent gestures with ‘Un Puente.’

Including a number of collaborations guest vocalists Angelica Garcia and Meah Pace as well as production from Patrick Ford, !!! set out their hopeful vision of the dancefloor, creating another infectious record in the striking world of !!!.