The Chaos

The U.K.’s Futureheads are basically a punk band at heart. Yes, they find the slightly off-kilter rhythms of their peers — Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand — to be attractive options. But, in the end, it’s not the quirks that bring about their staying power, but the brutality of their guitar chords and their abilities to channel a fantastic riff and turn it into an anthem that could be bounced off the walls of the smallest, sweatiest rock club or reverberated to the last row of a massive sports arena. The title track immediately delivers the knockout punch and each successive tune adds to the musical mayhem with the group’s ensemble vocals taking on the rallying cry of a British football team celebrating victory. “Struck Dumb” could be the Jam brought to a louder conclusion. “Heartbeat Song” is a simple pop tune with the amps turned to eleven. “Stop the Noise” grafts more tough guitars over a melody that’s pure mod-power. With most tunes coming in around three minutes, this is impressive musical economy that never skimps on the essentials.