!!!

!!! (pronounced chk chk chk) opens their latest album, Louden Up Now, with a disco drumbeat, warbly guitars, cowbell and a bass line robbed from "The Humpty Dance." It's enough to offend anybody tired of the recent funk-rock revival led by Liars and The Rapture, but luckily, the goofy intro quickly gives way to the seven-member band's most lush effort yet. Unlike !!!'s simpler self-titled debut, Louden stands out thanks to songs that shift and mutate enough to make Funkadelic sound like Raffi. "Dear Can" begins with a drum frenzy, and before the Bee Gees guitars, whispered vocals and horn blasts build to a close, the song climaxes with a synthesizer dance-off. Still, that song has nothing on "Pardon My Freedom," the rave-appreciative anthem for all things passive. Nic Offer's venomous delivery of chorus "Like I give a fuck, like I give a shit" makes Nirvana's "Here we are now, entertain us" seem tame. Unfortunately, Louden's second half is slowed by bloated three-parter "Shit Scheisse Merde," whose dub vibe dulls the other songs' momentum. Other than the "Shit," though, Louden whips up enough dance energy to shame most club DJs, let alone the rest of the funk-rock revivalists.