The R.E.D. Album, the follow-up to the Game’s intermittently great 2008 disc L.A.X., isn’t out until the winter, but the proud Comptonite has gifted us early: “Bang Along,” which leaked today, is the audio equivalent of a breezy SoCal joyride (and, if we had an in with the programming director at Z100, a legitimate song of the summer contender). Over a beat so laid-back it’s almost catatonic, Game awesomely reflects on the days of getting in trouble for taking the Duck Hunt gun outside and quoting 2 Live Crew to get girls out of their training bras. Also, the outro — in which Game provides a mesmerizingly detailed account of Hector, his neighborhood ice-cream man, complete with re-created dialogue from when the vendor would run out of ice-cream sandwiches — is the best spoken-word reminiscence on childhood snacks in a hip-hop song since Ghostface immortalized Chick-o-Sticks on “Child’s Play.”
