Following on the heels of their monumental Don't Need Smoke to Make Myself Disappear 7", Pissed Jeans drop album number 2 and their Sub Pop debut: Hope for Men (we like to think of it in the "mankind" sense).

For those who found a glimmer of the stuff on the aforementioned single (two pressings of which have sold out), the album delivers more, and in abundance.

That is to say, if classic, thick-as-glue punk bombast and Aussie sludge stoke the coals of your existence, you have found, not only your new favorite band, but a reason to get up in the morning.

Since 2004 the Jeans have spent many a night playing in their hometown, no-rules hellhole, Allentown's legendary Jeff the Pigeon (RIP).

Their first single, "Throbbing Organ" and album, Shallow (both on Parts Unknown) set many self-styled punk scholars' hearts a-flutter.

Songs like "Ugly Twin" sent jaws floor-ward by including a plaintive piano part in a bruiser of a song.

Such touches abound on Hope for Men. The album is diverse, but the Jeans ain't no dilettantes.

Mixing volatility with humor is a damned hard thing to master in music. Pissed Jeans do it with smarts and poignancy.

Consider the bar raised.