TALKING HITS EP is just a week away now, friends, and those of you who hold up You’ll Melt More! as all that is good and right in idol (and are therefore not wrong in the least) have no doubt been clamoring to get a listen to their 138th studio release since 2014.

It’s You’ll Melt More! — literally no matter the tenor of the song, you know that the video’s going to take you for some kind of ride. And, in this case, to some theme park called Little World and a chance to finally imagine Ano visiting your home:

I let that track start up, and I sat and waited and waited and waited for that quintessential YMM moment, to be blown away or made slightly uncomfortable or even just to exalt in a depthless embrace of creative majesty, and I only got the slightest of tastes of any of the above. This isn’t that song, and while the video’s fun, it doesn’t have that same drive of manic pixie dream girl menace that certain past releases reveled in — stuff might get cute in there, but you’re acutely aware that some dangers may likewise lurk within.

What was killing me about the piece, though, actually wasn’t how much it reminded me of certain post-grunge power pop from years of old (ca. 2000!), but how much I really wanted it to go all-in on that blend of elements and work in a cameo for Liz Phair. Man, that takes me way the hell back. Enjoyable, though, and I’m sure that there’ll be more surprises from the record over the next couple of weeks, as YMM only very rarely lets us down in that department.