It's extremely rare to find a band on Matador that actually has some minuses about their many pluses.

See, I love Bettie Serveert's music. This band writes songs so sweet with wholesome pop goodness, it downright makes me wanna cry. And there's not a bad apple among the 13 new ones on Dust Bunnies. I guess what's got me down is that singer/songwriter Carol Van Dijk tries way to hard to be cute. Not in an obvious way like the girls of Veruca Salt or Gwen (and it's pretty damn weak, by the way, that the world is on a first-name-basis with the chick from No Doubt). It's more subtle -- like the way Lisa Germano does it. She just emphasises certain words, which is better because it only makes you wanna barf for a second instead of the whole way through.

Oh, but the lyrics! They're tremendous. Right from the start, the unfiltered hatred of "Geek" strikes a chord with anyone who's ever just wanted to unrelentlessly flog some stupid bastard. ("Turn him inside out on the kitchen floor / He'll soon find out that he doesn't wanna sing no more.")

"Heaven" is probably one of the greatest songs of the year already with its unparalled poetry ("You don't need to express your admiration / 'Cause holiness is something that you have or haven't got / and it can't be bought") and perfect production (Thanks to indie hipster Bryce Goggin.)

So the songs are magically delicious and if you don't mind subtly and intentionally "cute" girl vocalists, and especially if you already like Bettie Serveert, this record's for you.

-Ryan Schreiber