Like yesterday’s featured artist, Josh Rouse, Guster is a moderately popular indie act that has quietly amassed an impressive discography. The band’s new album, Evermotion, is their seventh.

This record finds them a god distance, sonically, from their early work even as the songwriting sticks to the same tried and true folk pop formula. Guster’s calling card in the late 90s was acoustic guitars and stick-free percussion, a very lo-fi organic vibe. Evermotion, in contrast, is synth-heavy — almost distractingly so in some cases.

More and more current releases are reaching back to the 80s New Wave sound, and generally I like the trend. I’d rather see a band like Guster branch out and expand their sonic palette with moderate success than have them put out seven interchangeable albums.

One of the joys of music fandom is watching artists stretch and experiment. The best never end up where they started but never lose sight of it either.