Bran Van 3000

While their befuddling debut Glee flailed as often as it flew, the second album from these Montreal genre-fuckers is a complete delight from beginning to end, even if you feel like taking a bath afterwards. All sorts of things that should never work actually do, like a Cuban chorus in a rap by Big Daddy Kane, or a Senegalese obsession that peppers the entire album. The sweet pop songs taste like cotton candy at the fair in the mall parking lot, like the inevitable single "Love Cliché" and the lead-off track "Astounded," featuring the last recorded vocal by the late great Curtis Mayfield. Probably without realising it, ringleader Jamie DiSalvio has created a musical (not lyrical) concept album around a utopian vision of Top 40 radio in 2001, or at the very least a great mixed tape for the beach. Utterly ridiculous and thoroughly enjoyable.