Quick, Before It Melts.

Spain isn't the first geographic locale that comes to mind when I think of punk-rock, but neither is Sunderland, England, really when you come to think of it. Still, Sunderland is the birthplace and home of The Futureheads, whose absol-fooking-lutely brilliant new album, This Is Not The World hit record shops this side of the Atlantic yesterday.

The album was recorded in a short, sharp three week session with Youth at his Space Mountain studio in Spain. It's laced with spunk, enthusiasm, joy, and a sense of liberation. That freedom most likely comes from having lost the shackles of record company control, as The Futureheads and their former label, 679, parted ways after their last album, News + Tributes. The band started their own label, Nul Records, and found the energy and zeal that making music brought them way back when it all began: "It's time to wake up/it's time to change/Let's get it started/I feel like there's so much to re-arrange/ Come on, I need your help with this" go the opening lyrics to album opener "The Beginning Of The Twist," references the band's recent history while simultaneously ushering in one of the best songs of their career; it's a victorious middle finger to those who didn't give them the credit they deserve.

There will be detractors who'll say Youth has given The Futureheads' new wave a radio-friendly spit shine, and dulled some of their sharper edges, but when you listen to the songs themselves, they are radio-friendly punk-rock tracks. Indie rock fans embraced the band's outsider status next to more popular contemporaries in the past, but this is The Futureheads at their most accessible, focused, best. Maxïmo Park, and Franz Ferdinand, the ball is firmly in your court now.