“I don’t possess the necessary level of irony to enjoy the Langley kids“: this Round Table of reviewers listening to Tot Rock and other kidforms of music struggle to attain the hipsterly correct degree of witty unmovedness they appear to be setting themselves here (as per quote), and (interestingly enough) fail. Partly this is because they don’t actually understand the whyfore of irony: it’s not about “pretending to like” stuff you actually don’t (cf every lame whinge ever against I Love the 70s et al), it’s about feeling – in certain company – that you have to ration how and when you’re able to admit to your true responses. Sometimes you should probably just go aspire to less rubbish company; other times – whence camp etc – this may not yet be an option. I love some of the Langley stuff, I think for the same reason I’ve started to love hearing hymns sung at schools (one of the unanticipated side-products of the if…. project): there’s an ancient but deeply utopian yearning still audible in these forms of music, sometimes actually quite at odds with the social contexts which allow (or cause?) them to continue to exist.