The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike

Although this album has been dosing unsuspecting listeners with its incessant sonic sugar rush since late 2004, it didn't receive a proper US release until this October. Nominated for this year's Mercury Prize, the Brighton, England-based collective's debut album distills '70s funk, old-school TV culture, shout-along cheers, and all things double-Dutch and break-dance-worthy into a compact, discordantly modern-feeling form. -Doug Levy