Thicker Milk, the new Super Vacations LP put out by totally lo-fi Shdwply Records delivers, and it really is as simple as that. Those familiar with the shining, glazed nostalgia that hangs around a typical Super Vacations track will feel right at home: the scuzzy hooks, the inconsistencies and lethargic vocals are all ticked off and present.

But if you’re new to the band, your expectations of the Virginia quartet’s new full-length are most likely determined with the opening track ‘Moss’. Instantly bursting into a one-minute lo-fi surfer jam, the LP’s opener is typical of the band’s sound and it’d be easy to pass the record off as indifferent and bland compared to similar artists Ty Segall, Nerve City, Eat Skull and even the band’s previous efforts.

But with ‘Be Glad’ and it’s more psychedelic take on the surfer genre, we start to see the band opening up to much cleaner production values and a more vocal take on things, and this should be hint enough that we’re not just getting ‘yet another’ scuzzy garage rock album: oh no, The Super Vacation’s latest offers a diverse range of surf, psychedelic, blues, new wave and 80’s pop that have been swept up by the gnarliest of waves and washed over the tallest sea wall, drowning a stereotypical skater kid, creating an interesting fusion of sounds.

A definite stand-out track for me is ‘Safe at Home’, a track that essentially summaries everything they’ve ever done with it’s sharp, quick-cut delivery and a melody that could potentially drive you to a psychedelic freak-out, all whilst being only 44 seconds long.

And that’s where the record starts to fall apart – tracks are over before they even start going; the slower, more apathetic songs seem to trail on and the bigger surf jams seem cheated and few and far between. At 21 tracks in length, this seems lazy, which is ironic considering a band that’s aesthetic is lacklustre production.

But it does flow, and if you’re able to keep attention as it progresses then you’ll find gems such as ‘Proton’, ‘Bikini’ and ‘1000 Mirrors’ which are definitely some of the band’s finest songs to date.

It’s by no means a bad album, and as I said earlier, fans of the band will feel satisfied in its glazed 80’s new-wave ethics. For new listeners, however, ‘Thicker Milk’ proves to be one of the more trickier albums of 2010, but one that’ll prove to be a bit of a grower over due time. A great effort that’s haunted by a lengthy tracklisting and some undisputable filler.