The new Wolfmother is released in just over a week. The four songs that have been released from it to date are nothing short of mind-blowing.

“Victorious,” the title track, is totally triumphant. It’s got everything that has made Wolfmother great in the past, but while sometimes the music deliberately had veered into dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers territory in order to ironically mine the retro vibe, it’s different now. The cultivated lack of guile is now gone, and a natural ease and brilliance has taken its place instead. The retro rock is now completely authentic and, quite simply, a whole bag of awesome.

“City Lights” is more proof that the band has found its true identity and now stands apart from the pack. It’s not aping fragments of greatness from the past, but rather proceeding along at full clip in the present, having mastered the idioms of the past. This song zooms and zips through your headphones with so much pizazz it’s incredible. Slick guitar sound on the licks.

“Gypsy Caravan” can be described best with one word: groovy. Hop on board the psychedelic caravan and get your groove on, kiddo. What I love about Andrew Stockdale’s vocals is that he’s got a unique sound that makes him instantly identifiable in that good way. You know, the way that Ozzy singing a Black Sabbath song would make you feel unique excitement: as in, dude, nobody sounds like this! This is so cool!

The newest track that just came out the other day, “Pretty Peggy,” is a perfectly nostalgic expression of unrequited love. It takes you on a trip down memory lane, but there is no artifice, just artisanal craft in service of a purely musical articulation of infinite longing.

The sheer variety of accomplished songwriting on all these four tracks, which cover so much different territory, is stunning. The four tracks are all five-star wonders, and they’ve really got me looking forward to the entire album. Wolfmother is truly victorious!