So far, this year has given us a critically acclaimed and extremely complex album by Animal Collective. Merriweather Post Pavilion deserves a mountain of praise, sure, but I’ve been waiting for an album with a similar level of complexity that wraps up in 30 minutes and gets my feet moving.

I suppose there’s no use tiptoeing around it: I’m a sucker for lo-fi music. When I first heard the unintelligible lyrics and raw, sludgy power of indie sweethearts and lo-fi rockers Times New Viking’s Present the Paisley Reich, I was hooked.

Wavves, aka San Diego’s Nathan Williams, released Wavvves on March 17. It was released on iTunes on Feb. 10, but now the album finally has a proper CD and vinyl release.

It is, perhaps, one of the best and most experimental representations of lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll music out there.

The lyrics are almost unintelligible thanks to the lo-fi production, and the longest song is just short of four minutes. Nearly every track has the word “goth” or “demon” in the title. Perhaps the titles are a bit tongue-in-cheek, but that only makes me all the more charmed.

Wavves takes the best aspects from his predecessors. The songs are loud and fast like The Ramones. While keeping a rough edge, they aren’t afraid to make their songs melodic like My Bloody Valentine. They can also be as noisy as an early Steve Reich album. It’s excellent stuff.

Alone in my apartment, I put Wavvves to the ultimate test: I played it on my stereo at a volume that would inevitably infuriate my neighbors. Then, I went into the kitchen to do the dishes. When I caught myself dancing around my kitchen waving a soapy bread knife above my head, I knew this album was great. It’s hard to resist dancing during “Beach Demon” and “To the Dregs.”

With this criteria, however, lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll seems like a fail-safe music genre. An album that makes you dance like a fool can only go as far as the execution, though. Sure, Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” is catchy and certainly danceable, but does the rest of the album challenge you? Is it well-written?

That’s the beauty of Wavvves. It draws from a wide field of influences to make an album that is catchy, thoughtful, diverse and concise. Some of it is extremely danceable while other tracks are spooky and thought-provoking.

Not every song is outright reflective of early punk or lo-fi indie-rock. “Sun Opens My Eyes” isn’t afraid to have the percussion on an offbeat with a murky, low, repetitive guitar line.

You definitely hear the like-minded affection for Times New Viking’s boy and girl call-and-response in “Gun in the Sun” and “So Bored.” There’s also a twisted kind of Beach Boys-meets-indie-pop feel on “To the Dregs” and “Beach Goth.”

Although the title may be deceiving, the song “Gun in the Sun” serves as an exceptional pop song on the album. Yes, it’s still lo-fi, but the sound is ridiculously cheerful and, albeit intentionally, sunny.

The album leans toward being a bit repetitive, but thanks to its short songs, it never goes too far.

Williams also manages to pull off exactly what Van Morrison did on Astral Weeks combined with the raw force of The Stooges. Wavvves has a consistent feel and takes advantage of repetition, but it is kept in check by making subtle, beautiful variations on the same theme. Only instead of jazz and heartbreak, the themes are in the great hooks, volume, fuzzy sounding amps, demons and goths.

My only problem with Wavvves is that I didn’t know what to listen to when it was over. So I put it on one more time.

Hearing Wavves for the first time was like listening to the Pixies for the first time. It’ll be amazing to me if this album doesn’t become one of the capstone albums of lo-fi rock music.

Unlike a lot of great albums released in the past few months, this one certainly has a lot of replay value. There are so many layers to discover in each track. It can’t be­ narrowed down in one short listen.

Listening to Wavvves on an iPod is fine, but isn’t nearly the most gratifying experience. Listen to this one in your house on a volume that will infuriate your neighbors. It’s totally worth it.