Repartee are poised to blow up nationally with the release of their new album, All Lit Up. The album’s not out until Friday coming (April 29th), but it has been streaming to rave reception as part of CBC’s First Listen series, and their first single, “Duke,” is a stunning sample of the hook-heavy, fabulously polished sound on the new album.

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It’s been years since their last well-received release, and they’ve been busy getting 10 times better and tighter. They’ve signed to Sleepless Records (so they’re now label mates with the likes of July Talk), and the sound engineering on the album sounds like a million bucks: we’re talking Rick Rubin level sound engineering.

The songs on All Lit Up have more hooks than the Canadian Tire Fishing Aisle. If you need a “sounds like” reference for what to expect on the 29th at The Rockhouse, imagine if Taylor Swift replaced Emily Haines in Metric. Repartee are known for putting off high energy, memorable, sold-out shows, with plenty of people standing around outside the bar for falsely assuming they’d get in at the door without a ticket. Don’t be one of them.

“We sound pretty different now,” Meg Warren told us back in the fall, “I’d like to think it’s a bit more refined, a bit less all-over-the-place in terms of structures and genres. Robbie and I have been writing this album over the course of nearly 4 years.” You can hear that hard work on the new album, which has two points of reference: there are new, blazing versions of their townie favourites “Nice Girls” and “Die B4U.”

Catch Repartee at two shows this week:

April 27th, in Grand Falls at the Arts & Culture Centre

April 29th, in St. John’s at The Rockhouse