“I don’t think I’m particularly mature for my age, I still live at home with my family, I eat fast food and drink soda, I don’t really have an actual job” quipped Erik Nervous when musing the thematic guidance of his latest LP. Arrested development and shirking responsibility seem to have served Nervous well. Prolifically pumping out expert cuts of synth-soaked garage rock since 2015, being many a punk’s go-to for lo-fi production and recording savvy, as well as donning a robot mask behind the keys for The Spits’ live band, staving off the straightjacket of maturity has clearly proven fruitful.

Crediting Guitar Hero II with instigating a yearning for music-making and amassing a batch of yard sale toy instruments to aid his DIY arsenal, a lifetime of seeking inspiration from juvenile irreverence comes to its most gleeful conclusion on the aptly titled Immaturity. Caricatured as a Hanna-Barbera-style cartoon by artist Ben Lyon on the album cover, Nervous meshes his trademark lyrical obsessions of queasy anxiety and worldly worry with a deceptively joyful burst of rubbery, new-wave punk that pokes childhood nostalgia while warding off the burdens of adulthood.

The feverish energy heard on prior releases Assorted Anxieties or Bugs!! is outdone by exemplary cuts of garage rock which reach electric heights of punk acceleration. ‘Ankle Deep’ wields furious riffs that hack and chop with hardcore potency that shred harder with a frantic solo and a bassline so rabid you picture blood on its strings. Nervous’ punk rock chops never stay confined to his guitar. The disorientating ‘Third Layer’ adds panicked brass and gurgling synths to the mix like Devo spiked with Wipers that score the song’s splurge of private disquiet perfectly while showing how a tune can rip in entirely creative and unexpected ways.

There’s an impressive dexterity that lies underneath Immaturity‘s plastic-coated garage. Cosmic krautrock is conjured on the trippy ‘Heemgeh’, deploying cavernous expanse and motorik kineticism that brilliantly demonstrates his production chops and knack for crafting sophisticated cuts from rudimentary, home basement equipment. ‘Comfortable’s’ jerky, cartoon pop chirps and honks with maddening infection as it burrows its way into your earworms, while LP closer ‘Bottle vs. Record’ ambitiously flaunts multiple sections and acts like ‘suites’ or passages in an almost proggy finale that never dampens the garage punk urgency.

Not many artists can stay so vital and full of ideas after nearly eight years, but Nervous effortlessly reels off a record that feels like his most complete and cohesive release yet, Immaturity serving as a perfect introduction to his rich discography. With basement garage punk this good, let’s hope Nervous avoids the ‘real job’ for a long time yet.