Tim & Jean - Like What

Only the most die hard doom metal cave-dwelling recluse could fail to be totally charmed by Australian teen duo Tim & Jean’s impossibly bright and shiny synth pop. Think MGMT if they’d never been allowed to pursue their often dodgy psychedelic dreams, or Passion Pit’s cuter, fluffier younger brothers and you’re halfway to imagining the synth-heavy fun to be gained by entering Tim & Jean’s glittery world.

Standout track ‘I Can Show You’ fairly bounces into your room in a ra ra skirt and leads you by a pink fingerless gloved hand, spinning you around dizzily before leading you off to the most fabulous 80s disco you can imagine (you know the type, with Madonna dancing wildly along the bar, Prince smoothly mixing the cocktails and everyone in silk neon jumpsuits yet somehow managing to look cool). ‘Like What’ and ‘Veronika’ bounce along in a similar smooth 80s groove, slick and sleek as you like with synth squiggles all over the place and funky guitar riffs thrown in for good measure. It goes without saying that it’s all shamelessly retro, but when the tracks are so devastatingly infectious you can forgive the duo their blatant obsession with the greatest decade of pop music ever.

‘Give It Up’ provides a slight slackening of the breakneck pop pace, but it leaves you craving the glitzy brashness of some of the other tracks - the falsetto vocals lend themselves to the almost melancholy feel but sound slightly jarring here - although it’s still a cracker of a track, with lots of squelchy bass stabs delicately overlaid with elegant synth melodies. It’s just not as instantly likeable as some of the more upbeat tracks, like being force fed broccoli (cos you’ve got to eat your greens) when your taste buds have been hopelessly corrupted already with non stop fizzy delights of sherbet fountains and flying saucers.

As you’d expect from such natural pop the lyrics don’t exactly tax the little grey cells (“Why don’t you find yourself a nice dress to wear/while you’re at it you might as well even care” - from ‘Come Around’), but then again if Tim & Jean started singing about fighting world poverty or their innermost battles with existential angst it would seem totally at odds with their joyful cartoon-bright universe. If you go along with their unstoppable, excitable flow, it all makes perfect pop sense and you really can’t ever ask for more than an album to whisk you off into another world, wherever that might be (in this case, a world where gigantic shoulder pads and ‘Knight Rider’ were still cutting edge). Even if ‘Like What’ isn’t likely to change your life forever it’s still the soundtrack to the best (80s) summer holiday romance you ever dreamed up, and sometimes you don’t need anything more taxing than that when you are listening to a record.

If there’s a slight criticism of the glittery (fake) jewel that is ‘Like What’, it’s that Tim & Jean are often seemingly stuck in one gear - fizzy, excitable pop euphoria. At best they will send your spirits soaring - but at worst they set your teeth aching with their relentless sugar heavy tunes, addictive though they undoubtedly are. You know there’s going to be an almighty comedown but like all good things that are bad for you, you’re swept up in the moment, and to hell with what the future might have in store. Definitely a case of naughty but very nice.