Would a Scandinavian combo -- particularly one that occasionally sounds like a prepubescent Björk fronting a lighter-hearted Cramps -- consciously name themselves after an innocuous Beatles song? I'll leave that question to future trash rock historians. In the meantime, I'll shake my cosmic thang to this fun, frothy mix of frenetic rockabilly, sweet-natured pop and garment-rending torch songs. Finally available Stateside two years after its initial release (the band has already recorded a follow-up), Heart Attack is silly, crazy, and not to be missed.

The craziest stuff comes courtesy of Lisa Lundkvist, whose squeaky, piercing delivery places her in a select class of eccentric, spazzy female vocalists. She seizes your attention from the moment she barks off "A, B, C, D!" on album opener "Have You Seen My Boy", and sustains it with a bevy of demented, inspired rave-ups. "Black Kneehighs", "Vampire Love" and the incredible, meow-drenched "Pussycat" fly by at treacherous speed, marrying bouncy, remedial garage-rock riffs to Lundkvist's loopy interjections ("Give me a kiss!", "You're so sweet / Give me your beat!", and "Aaaahhh-oooo!", among many others), often in two minutes or less. On the annoyingly catchy "Ode to Betty", she chides and adores her subject in equal measure, calling her a "savage queen" and a "thoughtless child" in one verse, and an "irresistible gal" in another, and finally letting loose with a wondrous, abrasive "Go, Betty, Go!"

A whole album of such madness would be sublime, but Hello Goodbye has their softer side. I mentioned torch songs earlier, and they're almost as kooky as the fast stuff. "Highway Wind" and "Second Hand Teenager" make like stripped-down, long-lost Lesley Gore or Shangri-Las laments, while "The Picky Eater" (the album's longest track -- a whopping 3:16!) is an angst-ridden account of culinary discrepancies. Of course, these guys can't play it entirely straight, what with that last song's knowingly melodramatic harmonies and Lundkvist's insane reading of the repeated lyric, "Kenny, can you help me?" Or maybe they can, at least on the songs sung by guitarist Frode Fivel. "Summer Warmth" could be The Pixies at their poppiest, and "I Won't Let Him Go and I Won't Change My Mind" brims with cello and accordion; it seems uncommonly sober in regard to what surrounds it. And when Fivel and Lundkvist duet on "A Little Bit Hurt", they're not only vocally compatible -- you almost feel their pain. Well, maybe just Fivel's. Lundkvist may occasionally sound a little unbalanced, but mostly she sounds invincible.