After three years of 'it's out soon' and 'have you heard it?' and 'just a little later... soon... I promise!' one of the most anticipated releases of the year has arrived most officially at the KNOTORYUS offices.

Produced by Soulwax.

More scans of the official Das Pop artwork after the jump.

So the question remains: is it as good as everyone says it is?

The short answer: yes.

Yes it is.

The long answer:

It's the Beatles, 10CC, Joe Meek, XTC, The Pixies and ... I could keep going for a while. Most songs are of the finger-snapping variety, with enough poppy hooks to disembowel Timbaland. The difference between earlier Das Pop work and this album is staggering. It's just a completely different band. It's like (frontman) Bent & Co invented a new style of Kung Fu, where someone hops around like a teenage idiot at a Beatles concert, punches you in the mouth and skips off whistling a tune you can't get out of your head, even long after the stitches have healed.

The back story is fairly well known by now, I think:

Das Pop achieve success in Belgium, but hit a glass ceiling. So frontman Bent Van Looy burns several bridges in his hometown and moves to Paris to start from scratch. A year of financial struggling and playing in small pubs ensues. Justice picks up on them and starts playing their songs in live sets. Old friends 2ManyDJ's/Soulwax/Dewaele Brothers hear them play live and are blown away by the new material. They agree to produce the album. As payment, Das Pop agree to cook them a meal. Soon after, the album is recorded. Sequencers and samplers & other studio tricks are thrown out in favour of a live, garage-like sound. Everybody loves it. The buzz starts growing. But Das Pop isn't signed to a label any more. So it takes a looooooooooong time to get that sorted out. Album buzz reaches guns 'n roses-like levels, post-poning and re-scheduling every time a date has been set. At one point there was even an official press release, including a release date, and several magazines publish a review of the album (although they haven't heard it yet). Soon after, the release is set back for a full year.

And now it's here.

And we love it.

More on this, soon.