Tzu surprise with Smiling at Strangers opener “Hey OK” by opening with their second album with guitars – you expect hip-hop, not a rock-hop hybrid that is one part Del La Soul’s happy rhymes and one part the steady sort of pop you expect from California.

In some respects it’s a little bit too cheesy at times – but the horns on “She Gets Up” most certainly work in Tzu’s favour rather than against it. In the wake of the Latino-flavoured group the Cat Empire staking their claim on this sort of hybrid, Tzu have returned with a strong follow-up to the successful 2004 release Position Correction.

Politics still inflects the tones of Smiling at Strangers – “Recoil” is possibly the band’s biggest ‘statement’ to date. They adapt the national anthem for their own purposes, substituting the lyrics “Australians all let us recoil, for we have no idea/We go to war for wealth and oil/Our land is girt by fear”. The RSL is gonna hate it…if they happen to hear it.

Working with Regurgitator mastermind Magoo has proved to be a masterstroke for Tzu. Smiling at Strangers is an infectious album that includes strings and horns and exhibits a far greater sonic palette than anything the group have done before. If they go backwards from here they’re fools; Smiling at Strangers positions the band as a very exciting member of the Australian musical community.