Tender Trap are far from the most prolific band around, perhaps on account of Amelia Fletcher’s decidedly un-rock-and-roll dayjob as an economist in the Office of Fair Trading. Then again, it may not be the most surprising thing for a cult heroine like Fletcher, a figurehead of indiepop for nearly 25 years who’s rubbed shoulders with Calvin Johnson, Stephen Pastel and…er…Gareth Campesinos!, amongst others. Still, Fletcher’s fourth band have never really seemed like a functional unit, with a rotating cast – at one point relying on a CD-R for their drum tracks – and it showed on their albums. While 2006′s 6 Billion People had at least one bona fide classic (‘Talking Backwards’), its saccharine nature became occasionally cloying, with some exceptionally cringe-worthy lyrics about “having chats on Ebay” to boot.

Fortunately, with a newly-solidified line-up boasting Allo Darlin’ frontlady Elizabeth Morris on guitar/gorgeous harmonies, Dansette Dansette proves to be the record Tender Trap have always had in them. Practically a beginner’s guide to the work of Amelia Fletcher, all bases of her career are covered in these ten new songs. The title track kicks the album off with some thrilling, mix-filling feedback, while Fletcher, whose voice seems to have miraculously defied the aging process over 25 years, reels off a litany of girlypop icons, before closing with the wonderfully metapop plea “Are you fading out? Is it over?”

Meanwhile, ‘Girls With Guns’ sounds like Valerie Solanas and Young Marble Giants collaborating on a Bond theme – all moody twang and feisty thrash, and the teaser single ‘Do You Want a Boyfriend?” is cutely clumsy, deftly managing to rhyme “please”, “tease”, “psychologically” and “gynaecologically” and reference The Shangri-Las and The Jesus and Mary Chain within one verse. Yet, for all the album’s quickfire pop thrills, it’s the ba-ba-ballads that really stand out; ‘Suddenly’ is a jangly retro heartbreaker with a descending chorus to die for, while three-chord wonder ‘Counting the Hours’ leaves you unable to do anything but swoon.

While the band’s two core members – true blue veterans since the salad days of Talulah Gosh – haven’t exactly ventured into unchartered waters of their C86 brethren The Pastels, Dansette Dansette is a welcome thirty-minute reminder of the simple, giddy joy of pop music and arguably the finest album Fletcher has been involved with since the early nineties. Much like Teenage Fanclub’s latest LP, the sublime Shadows, there’s no pretension and no bombast here, because there’s no need for it. Simply put, this is the sound of a band at their best.