The exuberant Return To Love is LVL UP’s most accomplished album yet

LVL UP occupies a strange space in the current indie-rock landscape—as much as the term indie rock means anything anymore. Half the band runs Double Double Whammy Records, the label responsible for Mitski’s Bury Me At Makeout Creek, Eskimeaux’s O.K., and Frankie Cosmos’ Zentropy, records that helped launch some of the buzziest young bands around. LVL UP has garnered that same attention, even if it’s always on the verge of breaking up. The band has been open about the fact that, if not for signing to Sub Pop, there’s a good chance its third album, Return To Love, wouldn’t exist. Which would have been a shame, given that it’s the band’s most accomplished work to date.

From the album’s first notes, guitarist-vocalist Dave Benton is found making the most of his assorted Jeff Mangum-isms. Album opener “Hidden Driver” is part Neutral Milk Hotel and part Mount Eerie, but it’s the way LVL UP uses these influences to create something new that makes Return To Love so rewarding. Similarly, it’s when the group’s three songwriters—Benton, along with bassist-vocalist Nick Corbo and guitarist-vocalist Mike Caridi—all congeal that LVL UP settles into itself. The songwriting here is tighter and the production cleaner, the songs setting new benchmarks for what LVL UP can achieve. Even with a couple tracks (“The Closing Door” and “Blur”) taken from last year’s Three Songs EP, they’re given a fresh coat of paint that makes them far grabbier than before.