There are some bands who hone a certain sound, but whose formulas dry up in the light of scrutiny. There are others who constantly morph, though the risk of ostracizing fans often becomes reality. Then there is Portugal. The Man, who has crafted its own niche within the psych-rock world, and manages to shift its sound over and over, even within a single song.

Portugal. The Man’s latest LP, Evil Friends, is the band’s eighth release and stands as another harrowing example of the joys of musical ADD.

Evil Friends begins with a calm, albeit wonky, synth line that wouldn’t be out of place on a Residents album. Singer John Gourley sings, “Everything carries weight, everything is the same, and we are all together,” toeing the line between profundity and a silly parody of a Beatles lyric—again, not dissimilar to The Residents.

Portugal. The Man may be worlds away from being too weird to handle, but it exemplifies how rock and pop have taken a turn toward strangeness.

Evil Friends has textures and touches of weirdness, though it maintains a broad range of accessibility, and these facets allow Portugal to crank out new albums and secure a spot on the festival circuit year in and year out.

The first track, “Plastic Soldiers,” doesn’t stay in any one place for long, and the same can be said for all of Evil Friends. As “Plastic Soldiers” ends, a chorus of voices lifts the calm spirit of the song before a flux of warping synth replaces it, and from it comes the joyous piano of “Creep in a T-Shirt.” These on-a-dime changes are the standard for Evil Friends.

These frequent shifts don’t mean that Portugal. The Man doesn’t suffer from overlap. “Creep in a T-Shirt” and mid-album track “Atomic Man” vary in structure and texture; however, the key and progression sounds uncomfortably similar. The soft piano outro of “Atomic Man” seems to use the same chords as the main chunk of “Creep in a T-Shirt,” though it has a little up-tempo face lift for good measure.

In some ways, this reeks of a lack of creativity. Much of the album rests on four chords cranked out on piano or guitar, a psychedelic-pop synth line, anthemic hooks, and equally anthemic sing-songy vocals. But it does draw a commonality for Evil Friends and give the album a distinct flow.

The title track is at the height of this flow. A bright, Fender Rhodes-sounding lick on the keys carries along with a lamenting Gourley. In the background, an off-kilter clunk can be heard, which shifts in pitch and repetition until an acoustic guitar rises from the ashes of this freaky twist.

“Modern Jesus,” an apparent disclaiming of Christian dogma, has a driving and dancey vibe. As the chorus rings out, a string section begins to dance with an acoustic riff as Gourley’s vocals swoon over it all. It’s a well-orchestrated section, another instance of the genius that can arise from Portugal. The Man’s formula.

Another part of this formula is Gourley’s satirical alter-egos. On “Atomic Man,” Gourley sings about himself as a pseudo-super hero, who controls the tides and turns a cold shoulder to the world. On “Evil Friends,” he proclaims his superiority over many, and in “Hip Hop Kids,” he raises his voice only to claim he doesn’t give a shit. It’s not that Gourley is self-centered, but rather that this attitude is just as catchy as the guitar hooks.

This ironically self-centered, take-on-the-whole-world vigor is what much of Portugal. The Man’s weekend warrior audience is about, and Evil Friends is steeped and brewed in these ideas. “Purple Yellow Red and Blue” is the first single off Evil Friends, and its message is simple: “All I wanna do is live in ecstasy, I know what’s best for me.” Evil Friends is a testament to the fact that Portugal. The Man makes whatever sounds it wants, when it wants to.

Portugal. The Man – Evil Friends tracklist:

1. “Plastic Soldiers”
2. “Creep in a T-Shirt”
3. “Evil Friends”
4. “Modern Jesus”
5. “Hip Hop Kids”
6. “Atomic Man”
7. “Sea of Air”
8. “Waves”
9. “Holy Roller (Hallelujah)”
10. “Someday Believers”
11. “Purple Yellow Red and Blue”
12. “Smile”

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After 2011′s underwhelming debut, Different Gear, Still Speeding, Beady Eye promised an adventurous change of plot for its second release, BE.

Singer Liam Gallagher and his cohorts enlisted Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio for a reinvigorating musical makeover, but it’s a curious pairing.

Sitek, an indie-producer du jour, recorded the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Foals, and even Scarlett Johansson’s album of Tom Waits covers. Beady Eye, featuring 4/5 members of Oasis, is rooted in the sounds of its retro predecessors, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones.

On BE, this unlikely partnership adds everything from iPhone apps to organs and complex psychedelic rhythms to create an incongruous, yet often intriguing, sound. It’s an ambitious step forward, but all this talk of progress falls flat, as the band sees experimenting merely as a buzzword.

“We’ve experimented or whatever it is. What more do you fucking want?” Gallagher said in response to some skeptical Oasis fans boycotting Beady Eye.

The uneven effort kicks off with “Flick of the Finger,” a thrilling stomper with a drum line nearly nicked from the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man.” A rush of horns and fuzzed guitars fills the song as Gallagher sings, “You’re gonna tell me that you hear every word I say, but the future gets written today.”

There’s a spirit of revolution guiding the song, which closes with British comedian Kayvan Novak quoting a passage from Tariq Ali’s book, Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties.

It’s an artful composition matched only by the second single, “Second Bite of the Apple,” brimming with bright horns alongside trippy bass grooves and bells. “Shake my tree/Where’s the apple for me?/Tickle my feet with the NME,” Gallagher sings.

But no matter how many unconventional recording ideas Sitek throws into the mix, the album is ultimately shortchanged by a lack of songwriting imagination.

A trio of songs —“Iz Rite,” “I’m Just Saying,” and “Face the Crowd”— are rote Oasis rockers surrounded by ballads that never reveal Beady Eye’s “experimental nature.” “Don’t Brother Me” is a seven-minute space oddity in which Liam pleads with his feuding brother and ex-Oasis songwriter, Noel Gallagher, to “give peace a chance” before admonishing him for “lying, scheming, and crying.” Three minutes later, the song downshifts into an unfocused jam of sitars and strings.

There’s not much to speak of lyrically with this effort, as the words range from the nonsensical (“Yes, you’re not wrong/She wants to know what’s in your pocket”) to the cliché (“Life is short/Don’t be shy.”) As always, Gallagher sings with conviction and unwavering belief in these songs, and it’s that Gallagher bravado that led to the decision of keeping his voice bare and free of studio effects.

It’s a shame that a combination of cigarettes and alcohol, along with years of hard touring, rendered Gallagher’s nasally Johnny Rotten-like snarl into a caricature.

On the muddling “Soul Love,” Gallagher sounds like he’s singing from a vinyl recorder, and he aims for a wounded vulnerability that never materializes on “Ballroom Figured.”

For all its blustering talk of evolution, Beady Eye sounds like a band stuck looking backward. Different Gear, Still Speeding was a rushed collection of discarded Oasis tunes and ideas that failed to excite Beady Eye’s built-in fan base. BE is the work of a band stumbling to form an identity outside of Oasis and unsure of where to go next.

Beady Eye – BE tracklist:

1. “Flick of the Finger”
2. “Soul Love”
3. “Face the Crowd”
4. “Second Bite of the Apple”
5. “Soon Come Tomorrow”
6. “Iz Rite”
7. “I’m Just Saying”
8. “Don’t Brother Me”
9. “Shine a Light”
10. “Ballroom Figured”
11. “Start Anew”

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Say what you will about Japandroids—by the end of one of their concerts, it’s clear they don’t have anything left in the tank. Tonight the Vancouver duo of Brian King and David Prowse (not the actor) passed on providing an encore in favor of pulling out all the stops during their show, and clearly they didn’t leave anything in reserve. Guitarist and singer King said at the beginning of their set, this would be the last time they would play Chicago for a while, and their only guiding principle for tonight’s show at Metro was to play without rules.

Thus they played with even more abandon than they’re known for, with King sprinting and jumping, and Prowse pummeling the skins and cymbals, and leading the jam-packed sold-out crowd through their frenzied punk-inspired “whoa-whoa” choruses.

As they put it in their self-penned bio on their label’s website, “Japandroids are maximal—a two-piece band trying to sound like it’s a five-piece band,” and it’s amazing how much sound they make with one guitar and one drum set. It’s also astounding how much effervescent energy they radiate from the stage, even after almost 90 minutes of sweat-saturated activity.

A 90-minute set from Japandroids is all that more impressive given that the band is still touring behind their second full-length record, 2012′s Celebration Rock. Aside from that release, the set tonight featured plenty of songs from their 2009 debut, the critically acclaimed debut Post-Nothing and a number of songs released as 7-inch singles, one of which they’re selling exclusively on tour, especially for the fans.

Highlights of their set included “Wet Hair,” “The Boys Are Leaving Town” and “Young Hearts Spark Fire” from Post-Nothing and “Continuous Thunder,” “The Nights of Wine and Roses” and “The House that Heaven Built” from Celebration Rock. In a nod to the importance of the band in their hometown and the critical acclaim of the latter single, it’s now the official entrance theme song of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team.

The climax of the show occurred when King, wielding his white electric guitar accented by fluorescent duct tape, climbed on top of Prowse’s drum kit, and played the opening chords to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” no doubt inspired by having played with them at the Orion Music Festival in Detroit the previous weekend. That interlude didn’t last long of course, as King vaulted off the drum set and back into their penultimate number of the evening.

It may have been 75 degrees outside, but on this hot and humid night it felt more like 90 degrees inside the sweat soaked walls of Metro.

From the back of the house it was easy to gauge the crowd’s enthusiasm as they jostled and jockeyed for position to see the stage acrobatics and clap along with Prowse’s rapid-fire rhythms throughout the night. Noted for their volume, hearing was no issue—even some in the back were smart enough to pack earplugs.

Openers Crocodiles from San Diego never disappoint live, and they put on a stellar set. They debuted new material in anticipation of their fourth full-length album, Crimes of Passion, recorded with the help of Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes.

Highlights of their set included prominent harmonies provided by their new drummer, a third of the way into their set lead singer Brandon Welchez picked up a rhythm guitar of his own and their lead guitarist, Charles Rowell already sporting a coon skin cap and a Misfits t-shirt, thankfully threw off his leopard printed vest.

They channeled the ghostly Nuggets of decades past on the first single from the new record on “Cockroach” and led the crowd through a powerful version of The Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You”—when an opener includes a cover in their set, that’s another sign they come equipped with big brass ones.

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Get It

El-P and Killer Mike have teamed up to bring us more eccentric rap. The first single from the duo’s album is a furious beat-driven collaboration between two emcees with stylistically different flows that jive cohesively, unlike other team-ups that seem forced. This track will “beat you like Mo’Nique did Precious.” But in a good way.

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It’s a Diamond Life

Girls Against Boys has been rocking out for 25 loud years now. The post-hardcore quartet has finally returned to the scene after a ten year hiatus with a new tour and forthcoming material. The newest single is packed with as many “woo hoos” and angered guitars necessary to solidify a proper comeback. Welcome back, boys.

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Trains

You know you’re in good company when your record label boasts artists like Xiu Xiu and CocoRosie on the roster. Indie band Wampire chills out on an easygoing track with a simple bassline and a super epic slowdown. Looks like this train has come to an abrupt halt. That’s public transportation for you.

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Brand New felt like growing up, so it did. Less than two years after its pop-punk debut Your Favorite Weapon declared the Long Island quartet simultaneously juvenile and well-cultured in the art of the plucky, well-intentioned cuckold, here was an astronaut on a barren landscape, barely casting a shadow.

Deja Entendu was an aggressive move away from the point Brand New was supposed to have arrived at after Your Favorite Weapon, as much a statement about what Brand New wasn’t as what Brand New would become. In the ten years since Deja, Brand New has released only two records (three if you count the dubiously leaked Fight Off Your Demons demo tapes), each progressively burrowing deeper away from whatever expectation fans and critics could’ve possibly lobbed at the band. Deja was the beginning of the end of Brand New. It was an end that would sprout two classic albums and one profoundly mediocre one; an end that would see lead singer Jesse Lacey shoved up on a pedestal by throngs of fans, only to have Hooded Jesus forget how to sing live and learn how to scream. It was an end concerned with lyric sheets, demos and obsessively recorded covers of Neutral Milk Hotel songs; an end that would be overshadowed by second wave emo’s implosion until barely anything resembling the genre remains, including Brand New.

Hi Moz

Jesse Lacey wanted to be Morrissey. Even in the decidedly un-The Smiths-y “Mix Tape” on Weapon, Lacey makes a point of deriding his subject for criticizing “The Smiths … and Morrissey.” Heroes are often impossible to impersonate; this would seem doubly true for a Long Island pop-punk frontman trying to imitate a seminal Manchester alt-rock act and it’s “Pope of Mope” leader.

Yet for all of Weapon’s babbling about the terror of the debut recording process (“Failure By Design”), Deja Entendu actually succinctly culled Lacey’s songwriting voice into something nearly Morrissey-esque. At least four of Deja’s eleven tracks chronicle misadventures in sex, whether virginal (“Sic Transit Gloria … Glory Fades”) or predatory (“Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis”). A seemingly equal number chronicle the relentless touring of a band on the cusp. Yet the narratives that hold the most weight are the ones Lacey grounds in a deep, emotive moment. “Sic Transit” is by any measure not the most single-worthy track on the album, yet it got first billing because it sums up much of what Deja Entendu is about – that great emo staple, loss of innocence that comes from that unfortunate first time having sex. The album’s most easily forgotten, yet probably best, track, “Guernica,” does the same when faced with the prospect of a loved one dying and being unable to affect any sort of change. “Is this the way a toy feels, when its battery’s run dry?” is a neat bit of Morrissey aping, something Lacey really only captured with any poignancy on Deja.

Perhaps this is why, with the exception of “Jesus Christ,” the heartbreaking ballad on Brand New’s third record The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, Deja Entendu records Jesse Lacey and his most relatable and morose. The anachronistic reality with most mid-aught emo kids resides somewhere in the half-ironic, half-fake-it-til-you-make-it opening line to “Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Dont:” “I am Heaven sent / don’t you dare forget.” It’s unlikely Lacey actually believes he’s sent from God, or even something closely related. Instead the line captures the mildly pretentious feeling of any late teenager listening to Deja; that Deja is the best music, and everybody else is just hiding their feelings.

The Smiths accomplished something similar, albeit in a more literary way. Lacey strikes a chord on Deja by being self-pitying yet sure of his own excellence. “We Won’t let you in / though we’re down and out,” goes the chorus of “I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light.” Instead of getting lost somewhere along the road of self-pity and ending up pathetic, Lacey managed to weave cogent, half-winking and fully fleshed out narratives together from a scene that was rapidly running out of good ideas.

They Call ‘Em Rogues

Of the years before the Panic! At the Disco-ization of emo, 2003 bore the most fruit for a potential second wave of hooky bloodletting, this time incorporating elements of modern pop-punk heroes like Blink-182 and Jimmy Eat World. 2003 saw the best records from Yellowcard (Ocean Ave.), Fall Out Boy (Take This To Your Grave), The Early November (Room’s Too Cold), Something Corporate (North) and Thrice (Artist in the Ambulance), as well as breakouts from could-have-been emo staples Limbeck (Hi, Everything’s Great), Armor For Sleep (Dream To Make Believe), The Format (Interventions & Lullabies) and The Weakerthans (Reconstruction Site). On top of that, superstars Thursday released their second best record War All The Time, and Coheed & Cambria instituted themselves as a hard-emo force to be reckoned with with In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth. The wheat, as they say, was massacring the chaff.

With all this quality output, Deja Entendu’s seminal status carries more weight for being the best emo record of that year by leagues. Emo had yet to take control of the airwaves (Yellowcard’s record would help), but Deja Entendu felt as though Brand New had already figured out where the logical endpoint was and had just skipped steps to get there. For evidence, notice how many records post-Brand New actively copy either the Your Favorite Weapon or the Deja Entendu formula. The question is slightly unfair, since the latter record is far better than the former. That’s also part of the beauty of it – emo bands (rightly) saw two incredible records by one band, and in their haste to cash in on the scene’s reluctant flagbearers, too the easier route to a record deal. Is it any wonder that Taking Back Sunday and Fall Out Boy leapfrogged Brand New’s cultural cache? Both took the easiest possible way through emo to get to success.

Deja Entendu was anything but the easy decision. From the post-rock opening “Tautou” to the almost jazz-inflected boom-bap of “Jaws Theme Swimming,” Brand New wanted to be something grown from the emo framework. They still resided solidly in that framework (the lyrics to “Tautou” or the chorus of “Jaws Theme Swimming”), but the urge to push the boundaries is what catapulted Brand New over their contemporaries. Even the most laudable of the band’s friends, Thursday and Thrice, would attempt to out-push the genre pushers, each progressively drifting further from the thematic purpose that yielded the best results. Deja Entendu was both.

Ten years later, precious few of those cadre of names matter even in the small frame. Thursday is a legacy band, easily forgotten, but memorialized by a vocal few. Coheed & Cambria went insane with power and burnt themselves out. Fall Out Boy just released one of the worst albums of the year. The only legitimate popular remainder from that list is Nate Reuss, lead singer of The Format and progenitor of last year’s Descent To the Middle Single of the Year, fun.’s “We Are Young.” Everything succumbs to gravity; it is mesmerizing how hard these band’s hit the ground.

When You’re Young You Celebrate

The introduction below was given by an abnormally canded Jesse Lacey in 2006 before playing Your Favorite Weapon closer, and fan favorite, “Soco Amaretto Lime.” Listen to the hesitancy with which Lacey tries to speak about the youth who wrote the song – him, a mere five years earlier.

This explanation fits, though. Brand New stopped playing more juvenile Weapon tracks like “Jude Law and a Semester Abroad,” “Seventy x 7” or “Soco” because at some point the band had to grow up. There’s no celebrating on Deja Entendu; there are scarcely more visceral feelings than anything expressed on Weapon. Entendu is more mature, but in the way college freshmen feel mature. The members Brand New spent the three years post-Deja attempting to erase their younger selves with such great prejudice that the legend of their former lives would haunt the band ad nauseum. “Spin Light” discusses this with blunt turns about reading more maps than books and nautical metaphors about shooting prey.

Systematic erasure of previous creative accomplishments, sadly, would become Brand New. While most fans put Brand New’s infamous reclusiveness on the shoulders of Lacey, the relative paucity of music from any other member of Brand New speaks to how much the band truly hated the adoration their past successes earned them. Following “Seventy” and “Soco’s” expulsion, the band would cull early single “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows” and acoustic weeper “Play Crack the Sky” from the live set, preferring to extending The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me tracks on to nearly double the length with post-rock noise. The band’s shows were always captivating since Lacey’s nonplussedness could swing wildly from night to night.

The thesis of Brand New’s live show was clear – define us by this moment, not by any moment prior.

Trouble is, Deja means something quite a bit more to quite a few fans than it does to the band. For all of the blathering above about stretching the emo formula and trying to work out a productive way to expand the genre, Deja Entendu was a miraculous record for the way it connected with so many. Many emo records can claim lordship over the hearts of fans – any of the records listed above plus a smattering of Taking Back Sunday or Say Anything releases. Yet, in large part the common denominator between kids who grew up in the emo scene in the mid-aughts is Deja. Whether the loss of innocence, the clever songwriting, the album cover or the mile-long track names, Deja was a record put out and over time dismissed by its own band. Which would probably make it easy to forget, were it not so effective at drilling into the psyche’s of its listeners. Ten years ago Brand New released Deja Entendu; from that day forward, the record has belonged more to the fans that live by it than the reclusive emo-savants that made it.

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Glass Theory isn’t a theory at all. It’s a proven electronica fact in human form named Jack Duff. Jack’s newest EP, Hard To Breathe, is now available and he graced the ‘stache with a little bit of his time to talk about the record and other theories.

Pop ‘stache: What’s the origin of the Glass Theory?

Jack Duff: Glass Theory was a project I decided to start after years of playing drums and writing in other bands. I had been toying around with the idea and writing/producing on my own for a while, but it really came together after I first demoed “By the Bar” at the end of 2011.

P ‘s: Where do you hail from and where do you get most of your Glass Theory-ing in at?

JD: I’m actually from Phoenix. I moved out to Los Angeles about seven years ago. Everything I’ve written and produced I’ve done in L.A. from my home studio—except my new track “Hard to Breathe,” which I mixed with Alex Aldi in New York.

P ‘s: What was your song writing process like for the EP?

JD: It really varied from song to song. Some tracks spark from a voice memo, an isolated lyric or melody idea. One idea I ended up trying to record while driving. For some reason ideas hit me when I’m driving a lot, haha. Other times I will create a groove using a drum and bass track or synth progression and go from there.

P ‘s: Do any of your musical influences or artists you’re currently listening to inspire you when constructing songs, and can any of those influences be heard in your music?

JD: My musical influences are a bit across the board. Although I’m very into dance music, Brit-pop is definitely an influence in what I do. I’m a big fan of Blur, Suede, James, Oasis, etc. Depeche Mode is probably one of my biggest influences. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of DJ/producers such as: The Magician, Touch & Go and Lindstrom. Artists such as these influence my production, but I feel like my influences don’t have that much of a direct effect on my songwriting.

P ‘s: What part of the job do you enjoy more: Playing shows or the creative process?

JD: That’s a tough one. I love both equally. Performing as a frontman and singer has been very liberating after being stuck behind the drums for over 10 years in bands. I’m actually free to move around and interact with my fans, which is nice. I will always love writing and producing though. I feel very comfortable spending hours and hours alone in my studio. It’s almost like therapy, whenever I don’t have some solid time in the studio for more than about a week I start feeling a little bit crazy.

P ‘s: Doing everything on your own, I’m sure that gives you the freedom to be a little more personal. Is there anything you miss about the collaborative song writing process or do you vastly prefer this? Is there anyone you’d like to collaborate with?

JD: I honestly enjoy both equally, and I get to do some collaborations as Glass Theory with other artists, which is a lot of fun for me. I actually have a few of those collaborations in the works right now. One artist I really respect and have been a fan of for a long time that I would love to collaborate with is Miami Horror, as well as Oliver.

P ‘s: How does the new EP differ from some of your previous work?

JD: I feel like Hard to Breathe is, although less aggressive, definitely more of a dance album. Although I feel like the tracks on the album are still pop songs, because when it comes down to it, I write pop music, I was heavily inspired and influenced by the underground/after-hours dance scene in L.A. and by the DJs and producers creating nu-disco and even deep house tracks.

P ‘s: As GT has evolved, what are some of your favorite moments since the inception of the project?

JD: I’d have to say putting out that first single/EP and getting to hear people’s response. It was very nerve racking, since I had never released a “solo” album before, but insanely gratifying once I started to get good feedback. Also playing in my hometown of Phoenix last year for the first time as Glass Theory and getting to see a good crowd of people singing along. Those moments keep me going.
At that same show in Phoenix, in the middle of the show I finished a glass of whiskey, and, after muttering something about needing more under my breath into the microphone (as a joke), multiple people in the crowd started yelling to the bartender to get me a drink. I felt the love.

P ‘s: Finally, please explain this quote from your Facebook page: “Sex, night swims in the ocean, surrealist art.”

JD: I’m kind of glad you asked. I think you’re the first person who’s asked me about my interests on Facebook, haha! Well, I think the interest in sex is pretty self-explanatory, but I honestly feel like that sensuality and experiences I’ve had do come out in my music. I always think that sensuality in music is important. A lot of my favorite songs are songs that would be good to make love to. The night swims came from an amazing experience I had in St. Lucia. I was just floating in the ocean and everything was pitch black except the moon and the stars, and I was staring up at them. It made me feel like I was in space, weightless. And, well, surrealist art is something that can be an influence on me as well. I think all art is sort of tied. I really love this polish artist Beksinski as well as a few other surreal/fantasy painters.

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As The Features’ second, self-titled album fades in with opening track “Rotten,” a drum roll and bass line slowly promenade over airy strings, and lead singer Matt Pelham sings softly. That mellow mood is lifted when a heavy guitar and choppy electric piano forcefully move in.

The Features’ distinct approach is at its height during this ethereal song, which comes full circle as the music calms and the promenade moves back in, only to quickly fall away into “Tenderly.”

“Tenderly” has opposing sides, with sections that punch out of the tender vocals in clever opposition. The Features has been releasing albums since 1997, and the indie veterans know how to control their sound and feed Pelham’s lyrical ideas. “Tenderly” ends with the classic hold-the-last-chord-of-the-song strategy, and in its wake the simple drum beat of “This Disorder” begins.

That beat continues as Pelham steps in, asking, “Is this the way that I should feel?” An electric organ swells, queuing every instrument to rush in, and above it all hangs a simple country-blues lick paired with electronic chirps. It is a well executed and strikingly odd blend.

The Features’ second album has a cohesive flow—every unanticipated jump in sound bleeds seamlessly to the next. The 19 years of inspiration and development pay off in The Features’ mature sound.

Having lived through the decade, The Features’ seasoned sound glistens with a 1980s sheen at times, and comes complete with semi-cheesy synth tones, too. Pelham definitely takes a page from Morrissey on “In Your Arms,” and “With Every Beat” has glossy, twinkling synths that carry the song and wouldn’t be out of place on a Tears for Fears album.

The throwback vibe continues with “The New Romantic,” with slightly shouted vocals akin to David Byrne, dancey beats weaved with the snaps of a woodblock, and funky synth lines that would make any Talking Heads fan turn an ear.

Whether The Features is settling a storm with country-blues licks, or delving into pop-sensible indie rock, its unique influences are always peeking out of the music. The Features is memorable and well-written, but even in light of the album’s diversity, its catchy confines exclude The Features in conversation about pushing music in new directions.

The Features – The Features tracklist:

1. “Rotten”
2. “Tenderly”
3. “This Disorder”
4. “Won’t Be Long”
5. “Fox on the Run”
6. “With Every Beat”
7. “Ain’t No Wonder”
8. “The New Romantic”
9. “In Your Arms”
10. “Regarding PG”
11. “Phase Too”

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