Walk the Moon

With songs as vibrant and colorful as an American Apparel window display, Walk the Moon’s eponymous sophomore album is radiant with hip dance-pop. Producer Ben H. Allen helps the Cincinnati quartet craft a Brooklyn sound, starting with the opening “Quesadilla,” where Nicholas Petricca sings wistfully over pulsing club beats and neon synths. “Lisa Baby” imports jangly guitars that get instantly smothered by a gigantic, distorted bass line before Petricca’s falsettos command a smooth downshift in song tempo. “Next in Line” is a summer love jam swooning with an overpowering melody and amorous sentiments. Fans of Foster the People, Air, or Phoenix will find a familiar sleekness and cosmopolitan charm in “Anna Sun,” an outstanding number that blends Euro-flavored disco with indie-tinged melancholia. “Jenny” is a robust dance floor epic with big, buoyant rhythms and clever arrangements that somehow keep everything sounding more catchy than complicated. The slower ballad “I Can Lift a Car” closes with emotion, proving that Walk the Moon is more man than machine.