Listen to the start of Bas Class’ new album, and you might be fooled into thinking that Elvis Costello’s started rocking again. It’s not just that singer Donnie Picou sounds Elvis-ish on “Sweeten the Pot”—which he does, and uncannily so—but that the whole arrangement is right out of This Year’s Model, with the pounding drum sound (you’d swear Nick Lowe was at the board) and what sounds like a Vox Continental organ. More to the point, the song’s catchier and livelier than anything the real Costello’s written in a good while.

That’s the only outright homage on this album, but Bas Clas’ ace in the hole remains the pub-rock influences they blend with a more regional swamp-rock sound. It’s the same mix that was heard on last year’s Love, Food, Sex, Peace EP, but over a full album (albeit a short album at 33 minutes) they take a more aggressive approach. This time around they drop the folkish influences and the stretched- out story songs, and cut right to the rock ’n’ roll. “Johnny & June” is about who you’d think, but it’s not a country song. Instead it celebrates the couple’s enduring love to a power-pop setting complete with chiming 12-string.

With most tracks coming in under four minutes, the album’s really about the power of a good, concise hook—whether it’s done with a wall of harmonies on “Ramona,” or over a plodding Crazy Horse groove on “Pretty Pretty.” “Think I Am” opens with a familiar “Woolly Bully” lick, but then comes a killer pop chorus that’s bolstered by the addition of twin fiddles—used in a way that sounds more psychedelic than Cajun. You can call that being eclectic, I just call it first-class writing and arranging.