The first thing that I noticed about Pretty & Nice was that even though late 1970s New Wave heroes are named as a few of the band’s greatest influences, the likeness between the two is fickle. Where Pretty & Nice is unendingly energetic and joyous, Elvis Costello is enduring, XTC plays forth a little more cynicism, and Squeeze lacks the same vitality. Pretty & Nice is so simply a good mood band, so easily administered as an attitude adjustment, that it is hard to draw well-rounded comparisons between its immediate exhilaration and the noise of another era.

Golden Rules For Golden People, the latest album from Pretty & Nice, was received by a continuously expanding audience. The album’s first single, “Q_Q,” is upbeat and vigorous, demonstrating a deviation in stride that the band successfully utilizes throughout the album. Even the music video, shot in several locations with descriptions on the lower half of the screen to tell the story of each site, projects the startling realization of how ferociously spirited Pretty & Nice is. They start out at 8:30 AM in “someone’s garage,” and the proceeding shots are taken anywhere from outside a circus-themed bar, to the grass beside a line of porta-potties. The statement is clear: Pretty & Nice know how to rock out, anywhere.

The band, composed of vocalists Holden Lewis and Jeremy Mendicino and bassist Roger Lussier, is most noteworthy for the extraordinary musical variation it is willing to engage in. With every song come several changes in tone and melody, each of which is striking in its inventiveness. From the dance rhythms of “Money Music,” to the “we are all instruments” motif, I hear similarities between The Fratellis and MGMT surfacing and then evaporating, almost as if they never existed in the first place.

While I struggled to categorize Pretty & Nice’s sound for this review, I do know that if you’re looking for excitement, Golden Rules For Golden People is the place to find it. There aren’t many albums out there that are this washed out with happiness, so you may as well check it out before you decide what genre pure elation falls under.

(Rory Records, PO Box 38202, Albany, NY 12203-8202)