Sports Team’s Boys These Days opens with a grin so wide it’s grotesque, with a full-throated 80s power-ballad declaration of devotion directed at a red car. I’m In Love (Subaru) is absurd, hilarious, and utterly committed to the bit delivering retro-wave gloss with deadly sincerity, making for one of the boldest and funniest album openers this year. The title track pushes things further, a pure satire of reactionary Britain that could comfortably sit alongside the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, with lines like “now it’s all just vaping and porn” spat with preposterous conviction. A full-throttle lampoon of the grumble-industrial complex, it’s a riotous throwback to mid-’90s Britpop at its most indulgent, brimming with honky-tonk pianos, swooning strings, and a chorus of gang vocals; Pulp’s sly storytelling meets Madness’ cheeky pop instrumentation.

Moving Together throws a Coronation Street sample over a groovy Lemon Jelly-esque beat, and Bang Bang Bang delivers a surf-tinged spaghetti western twang crammed with sly production details. Boys These Days is stuffed to the brim with ideas, with a richness in its production and an anything goes approach to its arrangements with brass sections, pianos, whistling, and offbeat in-character monologues that make you feel like you’ve been dropped into some half-inebriated pub theatre production. It’s also a properly big-sounding rock record, full of disco-driven strut, and choruses that feel ready-made for a sunburnt festival crowd. You can feel the sweat, the silly dancing, and the mass singalongs. The whole record has a livewire feel, like the band are daring themselves to pull off increasingly ridiculous ideas. The result is both hilarious and huge, and a complete, well-rounded product rather than a gag album. A lot of that comes down to Alex Rice, who proves himself one of the most engaging and funny frontmen in the game, crooning, ranting, and preening his way through these tracks with the charisma of a born entertainer. Crucially, he’s backed by a tight, risk-taking band unafraid to try everything from orchestral flourishes to harmonica solos. Easy-to-love pop music dressed up in the most outrageous outfits they could find.