With fellow Tennesseans Kings of Leon dropping their beardy, Jack Daniel’s-swilling garage rock persona and plunging into a world of supermarket balladry and fraternal rivalry little over a year ago, it would be quite easy to label Royal Bangs as their replacement. 

However, Let It Beep shows that they’re entirely unsuited to such a Southern Comfort-tinged stereotype.

This is a record that somehow manages to cram just about any reference to a past popular music tradition in the past forty years in forty minutes, making quantum leaps between Thin Lizzy’s cock-rock, Kid A, and even disco - but manages to retain total coherence.

As opener ‘War Bells’ whirs into life, it would first seem as if we were witnessing a belated contribution to the garage rock revival, with raw, yearning vocals and punchy, overdriven guitars echoing the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the turn of the century. However, as sizzling synths make an unexpected appearance, Royal Bangs begin to transcend expectation.

By the time we arrive at the undeniably sexy indie pop of ‘My Car Is Haunted’, complete with an abundance of disco cowbells, maracas and synth shrieks, it becomes clear that Royal Bangs are not a band afraid to show off.

Whilst tracks such as the vocoder-laden ‘Brainbow’ display ideas not too far removed from Super Furry Animals’ most recent meanderings into the bizarre, others such as ‘Shit Xmas’, a shouty, boozy, on-the-terraces sing-along, prove that they never threaten to lose their true rock and roll credentials; not many bands could pull off such a feat without sounding inherently crass, but somehow, Royal Bangs get away with it.

When you thought think album could not get any more ridiculous or successfully ambitious (as if you were not already convinced by track titles such as ‘Tiny Prince of Keytar’) ‘Gorilla King’ takes it one step further, staggering around and spewing out a delightful kaleidoscopic mess of hip hop beats, laser chops and desperate, angular guitar stabs.

There’s so much to be devoured here, and it would appear that this is purely the result of five men simply making music and having a good time – it’s this sense of unashamed self-indulgence that makes Let It Beep so irresistibly listenable.

Jon Bauckham