In the glitchy, videogame-music-inspired "Red Paint," Brooklyn electropop duo Matt & Kim shout, "Hands in red paint, let's make a mark" — and that's exactly what they've done: The couple has streaked through Times Square (and, consequently, won an MTV Video Music Award), headlined Coney Island's Siren Music Festival, and drawn in one of the biggest crowds at 2010's Lollapalooza — and, in Sidewalks, they've produced their best record yet.

Keyboardist/vocalist Matt Johnson and drummer Kim Schifino's strengths have always been their hyperkinetic synths, huge, beaming choruses, and feel-good lyrics about living in the moment and going out to play. "Good For Great" begins with "Bruises and scrapes, all life's mistakes are nothing but bad weather," alongside pulsing synth chords and tambourine shakes; "Where You're Coming From" has a pizzicato string pattern and finds Johnson singing, "These years they come and go, but today's here to stay." As always, their Brooklyn stomping grounds continue to be crucial to their stories (Grand is named after the street the couple lives on.) In "Cameras," Johnson sings about drinking on a bridge overlooking the East River; in "Northeast" he talks about New York in the late summertime.

Matt & Kim often get a bad… read more »