Swapping retro attire and a funky-folk sound for Beach Boys harmonies and sensitive indie pop, Custom Kings have retooled their approach for this second album. One could cynically say the Melbourne quartet is just following newer trends – summer and beach themes, keyboard lines nodding to Vampire Weekend, and fashionable harmonies – but the album presents the band as often likeable purveyors of smooth hooks and universal emotions. It’s pat and easy, with lyrics that tend towards the vacuous, and yet so many sturdy songs about wistful times past can’t help but tug at the heartstrings.

If there’s a reason for anyone who hated the band’s debut At Sea (and its big single ‘Up Late’) to give Great Escape a chance, it’s bassist Jarrad Brown. Leader of the cheeky party band The Eagle & The Worm and half of folk duo Joe Neptune with Custom Kings singer/guitarist Nick Vorrath, Brown now sings lead here and there. He’s a scruffy foil to Vorrath’s buttery lilt. He helms some of the better songs – from the fuzzy ‘Do It Again’ to the layered alt-country jangle of the standout ‘We Go Wild’. His near-title track ‘The Great Escape’ overdoes the ocean metaphors but brings enough sun-baked good vibes and unexpected flourishes to make up for it.

Opening with a reassuring gust of vocal harmonies, this album doesn’t couch its affection for the Beach Boys. It’s clean-cut, brightly melodic, and wavers between cheer and melancholy. There’s no denying the band’s way with a chorus, as evidenced by the steamrolling lead single ‘Sunday’. ‘I Remember The Good Times’ and ‘Forward’ are both fluff aimed straight for radio, while ‘Heart Go Gold’ takes a glistening indie-folk approach to its musing about “Australia in summertime”. The closing ‘Indigo’ is a Joe Neptune tune that has all the hushed thoughtfulness of a safe little ballad.

All in all, it’s a considerable step up from Custom Kings’ earlier work. If not a wildly original album, Great Escape knows what it wants to be and pretty much nails it.

by Doug Wallen