For a man embroiled in record company disputes, betrayed by back-stabbing friends and prevented from recording songs he cherishes, The Wannadies main man Par Wilksten is remarkably calm and affable. However, his countenance is not altogether surprising if you consider that he is on the brink of releasing the best pop record of the year. Despite an enforced hiatus of over two years, The Wannadies new album "Yeah!" is set to springboard the band into new millennium with a record combining love, loss, despair and salvation without getting all pretentious and Richard Ashcroft on our asses.

Despite being the architects of one of the defining pop songs of the 1990's in the form of "You and Me Song", a inescapable ditty which accompanied numerous soundtracks and adverts, the band had disappeared without a trace since 1997's "Bagsy Me" album. Where had these pop cherubs gone? "To cut along and very boring story short," asserts Par, "the record company basically gave us no money. We were having a great career but no money." A seemingly strange position to be in for a band with a world-wide smash hit under their belts, this was deepened by the necessity to borrow money off Par's mother to make ends meet. This is surely the scenario of a student rather than a pop star. Thankfully, the situation was resolved, "they all got sacked," remarked Par gleefully in reference to the record company naysayers.

With all legal shenanigans out of the way, The Wannadies proceeded to record the backlog of songs that had built up in the interim. The finished article reflects the peaks and troughs the band had been through during their frustrating period of inactivity. "We were doing well and everyone tried to get a piece. Friends of ours had claimed they had written songs. The record company had used them. You need to be cool and honest, and if not, you're not a mate." The feeling of betrayal is astutely noted in a new song on the album entitled "Friend or Foe", the unforgettable hook line pronouncing "oh no not again, another friend fucked me over." The bitterness and aggression pent up in the new work is also visible in the T-shirt slogan for the current tour. The phrase, "I got fist-fucked by the Wannadies…and all I got was this T-shirt" is repeated to me mischievously by Par. He explains his band's fixation with this concept as simply it being, "a funny term, fist-fucking. It apparently exists, but I think it's a myth. It's more amusing than anything else. It's like feltching. It's not something I'd like to do. But the term does not exist in Sweden. I mean all your MP's over here…."(Thus ensues a brief discourse on British MP's misdemeanours, frankly not suitable for print.) Is this a thinly veiled reference to your record company? "We were going to have T-shirts with 'We were fist-fucked by RCA…', we were going to wear them when meetings in the office." I'll take that as a yes.

The innocent curiosity Par displays for such a cringeworthy act is indicative of the band's current state of mind. Lyrical despondency aside, the Wannadies still look on the bright side of life, more Jarvis Cocker than Kurt Cobain. Bitter but not broken. Like Cocker, it would be a fair statement to call The Wannadies perpetual outsiders, but still be able to write uplifting pop songs. "Maybe we've always been the underdogs," admits Par, "we were never anywhere near the scene in Stockholm. And the same is true now. We live in London now, but don't hang out with Blur or whatever. We do what we want to do regardless of what people claim is going on." The last-gang in town mentality maintained by the band over the ten years they have been together is what has helped them through the ever-changing currents of the sea of pop. Grunge, Brit-pop et al have fallen by the wayside, but the Wannadies have returned with their strongest album to date. "We made four albums before we made a breakthrough. 'Be A Girl' was the first album that sat there nicely on the floor and we thought 'we can do this'. With 'Bagsy Me' we were more confident. Braver. And with 'Bagsy Me' in our pockets, we went into the studio and thought 'We ruled'. 'Bagsy Me' was harder and edgier than 'Be A Girl'. 'Yeah!' is just an extension of that." However, do not panic! The Wannadies have thankfully not turned into Sepultura, contrary to Par's claim that, "we do sound bloody heavy." In a nod to the small town angst of growing up in a village where heavy metal is the only option even though Par was into punk and reggae, he suggests, "maybe now I want to show those bastards I can rock." Ahh. Bless.

As The Wannadies are a band hailing from Sweden, only a lazy journalist would dare mention other great Swedish achievements such as Gustavus Adolphus, Ikea, Volvo, Abba … "A journalist was going on about 'The Swedish Sound'. So I was like 'What's the English sound? Phil Collins? Is Abba the Swedish sound? Are we? We all sound pretty fucking different. And there's a bunch of bands in England who sound like Shed Seven, is that the English sound?" Duly offended by the notion of Shed Seven being a defining band in British rock history, the conversation changes tact. So The Wannadies are not national-centric, merely universal. Their frame of reference is more emotive than simply quality furniture and robust car engineering. The Wannadies are here to rock your world. And rock they do.

Unburdened by the potential albatross that is 'You and Me Song' ("we're not one hit wonders") "Yeah!" performed live is a joy to behold. The Wannadies are a band who genuinely look as if they are enjoying themselves whilst onstage. Like a small child who has necked too much Sunny-Delight, Par is the bouncy castle lynchpin of the band. His nest-like hair ("It was once shagged by a yellow lesbian bird") flailing throughout a chaotic set, which is littered with previous hits ("Hit", "Friends", "Might Be Stars","You and Me Song") and highlights from the forthcoming album. The unfamiliar set is well received by the new Lomax audience. New numbers like the poignant "Don't Like You", "Big Fan","Can't Se Me Now" and the first single to be lifted from the album, the title track "Yeah!" are welcomed in equal measures to old material. To see a band with such an abundance of energy and enthusiasm for their rip-snorting gems is an edifying experience. It's enough to re-install a Doubting Thomas's faith in the power of music. Ignore The Wannadies at your peril.