Kid Creole & The Coconuts: Pack Your Trunk (feat. Jem Stone) (Tommy Boy)

They've been truckin' for over three decades, but that don't stop the eternal party that is Kid Creole & The Coconuts. An unparalleled cavalcade of carnival uproariousness, doused in olde-tyme feel-good Latin'n'roll lounge swing, they've been boogieing ever since their inception in 1980, with members coming and going on a whim. The line-up may be varied, but the underlying essence that makes the troupe so enticing never flickers. Now, after a brief two-year spell away from the limelight, they're back with the 'Pack Your Trunk' single. Featuring the original track and three reworkings, it's a more than enough to liven up any limp shindig.

'Pack Your Trunk' has George Formby ukulele, a Big Bopper-ish “C'mon, baaaaaaaay-beh!”, and the dance panache of Lou Bega. That may sound like a diabolus in musica, but for some reason, it just works. It's more infectious than the common cold and more invigorating than a chilly shower or coke laced with menthol. It's probably what would've been played/performed at Club 18-30 in the '40s. It's jazzy, brassy and eurodancey. There's a huge cabaret atmosphere parading out of your speakers as the music unfurls; anyone who's been to Club Dada at Bestival will feel right at home. However, despite all the tomfoolery, it's a pretty bitter ditty with all kinds of venomous barbs and 'go-f***-yourself' attitude. Brilliant. If there were more discotheques that spun records like this, the world would be a better, if perhaps drunker, place.

It won't be to everyone's taste. The circus revelry has the potential to grate. Those who love Kid Creole & The Coconuts will find this mighty palatable; those quirkly inclined or those who are Itchy Feet fans will be smitten. Pack Your Trunk is a fantastic antithesis to the plastic Guetta-isms of chart dance; it's organic, human and brimming with joie de vivre. Go bonkers. Go nuts.