Punching in a Dream - #26 The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Agressive You

The BBC's Sound for 2011 poll has thrown up quite a few cracking acts, it has to be said. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether they are popular on merit, or because they have received such hype, that's not for me to get into, but a list including The Vaccines, Yuck, Warpaint and Anna Calvi will do nicely for me (and all except Warpaint have or are to appear on this blog at some point or other).

And so to The Naked and Famous, who are certainly deservedly part of said list. Putting the fun back in indie-electropop, the New Zealand band look like taking the country by storm, a foreign equivalent of what the Vaccines are currently up to.

I'm not entirely sure where I first heard of them, but I'm more than glad that I did. I don't want to delve into all that NME terminology about what genre the band should be listed under, I'm sure they would come up with something like electrosummerindiebreezepop or something equally ridiculus, but I just see them as good fun, and they have made a full album that is great to listen to. It's summer music through and through, and will no doubt be a highlight of the festival. I'm almost certain that there will be a huge crowd for these guys, but that's not putting me off seeing them. They are actually playing twice, like the XX did last year, and after making the mistake of not catching either of their sets, I won't be so foolish this time around.

'But what about the actual album?' I hear you all ask? Well it gets off to a flyer with All of This, a catchy electro-filled blast that really sets the whole thing up, but is soon bettered by Punching in a Dream, an absolute peach of a track, my personal highlight on here, and the song that may well be the soundtrack to my summer. The background melody is infectious, the vocals are borderline strained, but just about right, and when it needs guitars, it gets guitars. The song sounds awesome when it's nice weather here, and if the forecasters are right, we might be getting even better weather than 2010 for the festival this year. If that's the case, this song is going to sound unreal when the band belt it out.

Young Blood's another one that really gets the summer vibe across. I'm not sure that I realised how much of a feel-good album this was until just now, but it'll definitely be what I'm listening to the next time that I'm at the park, taking in some of France's rather nice weather.

That's not to say that every track is a fast-paced blend of indie and pop, the band are more than capable of slowing things down too, as in The Ends, but they are at their best when making tunes that just make you want to dance.

The more I listen to this album actually, the more I like it. And given how fondly I think of it now, that can only be a good thing.

So, The Naked & Famous, one of the BBC's bands of the year, and certainly one of mine. They'll get the chance to impress me further when I see them at the festival, and I have no doubt that is exactly what they will do.