Of course, the electronics haven’t entirely been eschewed on this album. They’re still there, it appears. But it seems that largely, they’ve been supplanted by an increased use of the guitar – or good playing – to create more impressive sounds. There’s bleeps and bloops in some places here, but rather than sounding like cheesy analogue or dated drum-machines, they sound like the result of a feedbacking guitar, an echo pedal and a bit of humanity – not to mention some good playing. Not relying on electronics to layer the band’s sound means that the resultant tunes kick a lot more – and feel a lot looser, a lot groovier – than Spiderbait have for a while. It’s a reaffirmation of where their strength lies: after so many years on the road, Janet, Kram and Whitt are an impressively tight unit. Tonight Alright seems to be the result of them embracing that cohesiveness and laying it straight to tape.

Even the album’s artwork is indicative of the band’s reconciliation with rock. It certainly breaks with tradition, at least. Gone are the cartoons that’ve adorned most of their previous releases and formed so much of the Spiderbait iconography. In their place? Simple silhouettes. No real details are discernable, except that each appears to be rocking the hell out – just as it sounds on the disc. It’s simple, and mimics what you might see of the band on stage at a gig with a preponderance of red filters. Like a classic Blue Note cover, it’s devoid of bullshit, commensurate with the music that’s contained within.

And what of that music? Well, Spiderbait aren’t exactly reinventing their wheel through these 36-odd minutes. But it’s certainly a cobweb-clearing revisitation of some favourite facets of their style. Generally, this is a disc you can imagine playing while tear-arsing along the freeway on the way to the beach, or on a night out. Certainly, most of the tunes here have moshpit gold written across ‘em. Indeed, if you’re looking for the perfect get-the-night-started tune, you’ve found it in Take Me Back. Kicking off with an edgy Bo Diddley-on-speed drumbeat, overlaid with circling guitar, an overdriven Kram tells us he’s talkin’ ‘bout love. A tide of guitar sweeps in as wah-swells and drums rise and fall menacingly.

And then, something fabulous happens.

After an accelerated, increasing-chord vamp, the song breaks back into what’s perhaps the funkiest thing Spiderbait’s ever done. Bass and drums lock tight and the groove is on. Descending basslines that sound like they should be accompanied by someone descending a stairway with a top hat and a cane. Guilty guitar licks escape a carefully-constructed cage, adding just enough freedom amongst the head-nodding. It’s difficult to describe, but it’s certainly grin-inducing.

The perversely disco-influenced path is continued later – most overtly – with the band’s cover of Black Betty. And while it stays pretty true to previous renditions of the song, there’s something importantly different about it. It’s got a great combination of strength with that trademark Spiderbait weirdness. Handclaps and shout-outs rest hand-in-hand with Sabbath-worthy amp-melting… before the whole thing bursts into a marvellously slack-arsed rock god section which leads off into a sort of “funky-helicopter-flies-into-space” solo. Maybe those cartoonist tendencies have only escaped the cover art – the band’s sense of giant robot fun remains intact, thank God.

Fucken Awesome, however, takes the prize as the album’s most singable tune. Aside from a parent-baiting lyric line that reiterates how the subject of the song is, unsurprisingly, fuckeen awesome, it’s in possession of some of the most perfect pop moments Spiderbait’s ever mustered. It also brings to mind the P’TangYangKipperBangUh tune Fucken Ace, though this time around, it’s a more mature, yet innocent take. The exuberance, the sheer joy that’s communicated in Janet’s vocal line is infectious.

Don’t wanna walk away
I couldn’t anyway
You fill my empty day
You know make me stay
‘Cos you’re fucken awesome

It’s tells of a happiness, a sort of overdriven love that’s backed by an almost perfect ooh-aah harmony that you’d be a hard-hearted bastard not to enjoy. Similarly, Cows lands in the same territory, though with some more ‘80s musical attachments. There’s a feeling of tentative love – the thrill of romance tempered by the desire to make sure everything’s OK, that nobody’s weirded out. It’s cute, in a spiky way. Tonite continues the sweetness with something that’s surprisingly subtle. Vocally, it’s smooth, and reminiscent of some of Lou Reed’s work, with a low-key – almost Dire Staits! – musical approach. The reassurance, both musical and lyrical, is that it’s all cool – Spiderbait, despite the over-the-top gestures and loudness, will look after you. And you know what? You’ll believe it.

Are good things happening to the band? Hell, from the sound of these tunes – even the more misanthropic ones, like Live In A Box – there’s certainly some fabulous stuff going down. There’s a feeling of corner-turning, of new beginnings here that’s pleasing; all the more because it works so well when combined with riffs that’d do Fu Manchu proud.

Musically, the band’s never sounded better. The drum sound that producer Sylvia Massy Shivy – known for her multilayered work with bands like Tool and Skunk Anansie (not to mention Kylie Minogue) – has captured here is perhaps the finest that Kram’s ever ridden. One of Australia’s greatest (underrated?) drummers ever to occasionally strap on an Elvis jumpsuit, the muscularity of the playing leaps out more than on other discs. Strangely, it’s not a sense of a bloke walloping the hell out of a set of skins that comes across here; more, the idea of subtlety is communicated. When the only percussion heard is a cymbal, it’s not lost or underwhelming – it’s just right, and strangely, not too much in-focus. Likewise, Janet’s bass and Whitt’s wide-ranging guitar are never spotlit incredibly: rather, the three work together as a whole. This is an album that works because the three musos on it are working as one, something that’s often stated but rarely pulled off as well as it is here.

Arse-kicking drumming, fluid basslines and Gary Glitter guitar that’s so crunchy it should come with a nut warning: Spiderbait have rediscovered – or should that be re-embraced? – their rockin’ roots. And the result, to purloin one of their own lines, is fucken awesome. Tonight? All right!