Kudos to You!

Personnel: Andrew McKeag (vocals, bass guitar); Jason Finn (vocals, drums); Chris Ballew (vocals).
Audio Mixer: Martin Feveyear.
Recording information: Chroma Sound, Seattle, WA; Jupiter Studios.
When the Presidents of the United States of America recorded their last album, 2008's These Are the Good Times People, they sort of expected it would be their last. A few years later, with all the pressure off, they booked some studio time to play around with, and apparently they still had plenty of gas left in the tank because they've returned with their sixth album, Kudos to You! Now 21 years into their career, POTUSA still have as light a touch as ever, delivering goofy, wide-eyed cheer with songs like "Electric Spider" and "Finger Monster." What's magical about the album is how, even after all these years, the band is still able to tap into limitless wells of irreverence to create music that's fun and whimsical without feeling like a novelty act. Sure, in the pantheon of popular music, a song like "Crappy Ghost" might be a goofy outlier, but in the world of POTUSA, it's as serious a song as anything. Much like They Might Be Giants, the Presidents exist in a world of their own creation, a world where everything -- fruits, or animals, or even ghosts -- is cause for a rockin' good time to break out. That sense of boundless, nonsensical exuberance has made POTUSA a band whose charms have endured for over two decades now, and given the strength of Kudos to You!, it doesn't seem like there's any chance of them stopping anytime soon. ~ Gregory Heaney