This wide-eyed quintet may have come from Nowheresville USA, but via a show-stopping performance at the New York music festival CMJ last autumn Black Kids became the most blogged about thing since Britney Spears disembarked from a car sans pants. The buzz became so universal that when Nick Johnston from Cut Off Your Hands said he “didn't like” the band, it made headlines in the music press. In the UK an almost-Top 10 single followed, and the band were televisually anointed as the hot new things via appearances on Later With Jools Holland and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

This mainstream acceptance was surprising when you consider how strange Black Kids music actually is. Although they Initially appear to be a traditional anthemic guitar band with an angsty singer, scratch the surface and there is more going on. Musical winks to the 1980s power-suited rockers Level 42 and 1950s revivalist Mari Wilson resound, while the lyrics sizzle with layers of Juno-flavoured irony, B-52s-style campy dialogue and surreal slapstick.

With this in mind, the choice of Bernard Butler as producer for Partie Traumatic raised eyebrows in some quarters. Would the Britpop legend known for shaving the edge off new bands suppress or address these nuances? Thankfully, he has done the latter - gently buffing-up Black Kids' lo-fi tweeness to make it more widescreen.

The album's best moments find the oval-faced frontman Reggie Youngblood's adolescent heart getting stomped on yet again. But in true Charlie Brown style, he gets up to fight another day, with comic pathos underlining the whole shebang. Take the quirky relationship in I've Underestimated My Charm Again, in which Youngblood nervously romances a girl who gets seen in the park “giving head to a statue”. By the song's close he admits “every time we kiss, it's like an in-joke that I always miss”.

Partie Traumatic is a gloriously original debut chock full of youthful enthusiasm. “Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance! Da-a-a-nce!” they squeal in unison on I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You, and you can't help but want to join in.

(Almost Gold, TMS £11.99, call 0845 6026328)

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