Another year, another Shonen Knife album. It's hard to believe that they're still putting out records sixteen years after their inception. I mean, let's face it-- they owe a good chunk of their success to the novelty of watching young Japanese women play punk- inspired pop. But here it is, another long- player of songs about buildings and food (hold the buildings). My first surprise upon running down the song list is that the Knife haven't already had songs called "Hot Chocolate" or "Sushi Bar." I guess I must be thinking of that old "Choco Bars" ditty.

Okay, so some things never change. They're still cute, they're still goofy, they still have no ambition beyond creating pop as sickly sweet as those bright orange "circus peanut" candies. Hell, they've probably already written a tune about those damn things. But it's still nice to hear that they got the distortion pedals out of hock (as on the rocking "Konnichiwa") after last year's well- crafted but somewhat anemic Brand New Knife. And then there's a little relatively catchy ska on "Cookie Day" and a few stabs at updating their sound with some electronic touches, all welcome experiments for a group as same- sounding as these gals. Fun, too, is the smart cover of the Monkees' "Daydream Believer," a song destined to be the best thing on an otherwise lame teen- flick soundtrack.

These cuts aside, there's not much that's new or particularly entertaining about the rest of Happy Hour. But that's to be expected, as Shonen Knife is a group who, let's face it again, can get pretty annoying in mid- to large- sized doses. Really, they're a mix tape kind of band. That is, they have a few zippy songs that you can throw on for some comic relief when the doom- and- gloom threatens to overwhelm. It's like mom always said: "Candy is a good and important thing, but you've got to save room for vegetables."

-Mark Richard-San