Theme Park: "Milk"

Not to be confused with the design-your-own-Disneyland game, funk-rockers Theme Park are still as addictive as turning up the salt content of your imaginary hotdogs and then trebling the price of cola. Raised on Talking Heads LPs from the years when Eno stopped producing, Oscar, Louis, and brothers Miles and Marcus sound less like the polo club you’d expect from their Christian names and more like four white disco superstars. Last release “Wax/A Mountain We Love” won them airplay and the support slot at David Lynch’s concert Le Silencio. They managed to keep straight faces throughout, and have now returned with “Milk”: an ode to the Sean Penn/James Franco bromance. Maybe.

Sounding like a bonus track from the re-release of Speaking in Tongues (1983), “Milk” is a would-be dance floor motivator that borrows equally from David Byrne and Prince: The Catsuit Years. Vocals come borrowed from the Police: “Money’s exchanged / Money remains,” screeches singer Miles as he Roxeannes his way across to a prostitute. Guitars sparkle and strain all around him, while Louis Bhose pecks at his bass like he’s trying to find worms hidden inside it. “We tie our hopes to this fickle world / We tie our dreams to these lies / These lies we take tonight,” goes the chorus, ideal for slinking down a jiving summer street while rocking the whitest trousers in your wardrobe. It’s a shame then that “Milk” is out six months too late, when it takes you an hour to scrape your car in the morning.