This ten track album opens at quite a pace with the
instrumental “Louis Stallone 007”, which is all ‘50’s influences surf music, this really sets the stall out for the rest of the album. Track two , “Anesse Topless”, carries on the sound, horn stabs mixed with soft blues style surf rock. This is music for the Californian beach party you didn’t want to go. I can see a place for this music, but it’s not in my collection.

With “Le Party” we are thrown headlong into the dancing throng of the party and left to flounder as everyone else gets the music and we stand dumbfounded and lost wondering why.  The sometimes shouted vocals mix
with something akin to the Jerry Lee Lewis’ backing band. This is music for fun, and as such it’s music that’s as throw away as the fun times themselves.

“Lets Beer? OK Pony!” starts like Serge Gainsboroughs “Je T’aime”: deep spoken word male vocals mix with female vocals before we hit a chorus of being told they “don’t need an excuse to order another beer”.  I give up.

“Mexican Hippic Sauce” is full on surf rock, but it’s just missing something. When Pixies “Bossanova” came out it was space age surf rock with a huge amount of originality, it took it’s influence from surf rock, not plagarised it’s very influence.  Sadly as a whole Hippodrone Club is derivative
and borrowed at best.

The music is all of a tempo, there is very little to latch onto in terms of hooks, and the over-riding sense of joy is cloying. There’s something oddly depressing about music that tries to be this upbeat and happy, and I find this is trying far too hard. If The Trashmen met The B52’s and took a foreign language class this would be the result, and
that’s not a good thing either.