With the deaths of Big Star's Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel, it's been a bad year for fans of Seventies power pop. Some small good news: this taut 10-song debut. Leader Josh Lattanzi has played with Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and toured with the Lemonheads' Evan Dando, and he can be fairly judged by the company he keeps. Tunefulness is the order of the day, and while the line between "classic" and "cliché" occasionally feels thin — "Man, I hate this town/Livin' here has got me down," he declares on the title track — the melodies, harmonies and hooks are so assured, it's easier to sing along than to quibble.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.