Obsessive love–there, I’ve got your attention—is always a rich topic for a pop song. And Baton Rouge band Karma & the Killjoys make good use of it in their album Hellscape’s opener, “Fate is You.” With its pounding piano and pleading “whoa-oh’s,” it spotlights the dramatic delivery of singer/songwriters Sydni Myers and Rain Scott-Catoire (the latter also on piano). The sentiments may be a little dark—not many love songs ask the beloved to point a pistol at the singer’s heart—but it’s also a shimmering bit of pure pop.

The Killjoys are an alt-rock group built around voice and grand piano, something that’s been done before (Ben Folds and the overlooked ’90s band Suddenly Tammy come to mind), but not often. The two frontwomen both came out of musical theater, which means they favor songs with strong characters at crisis points: “Water Under the Bridge” likens an impending breakup to a hurricane, and “Hellscape on 9th Street” is about nursing a broken heart during the pandemic. (Others are more topical, like “Higher” which strikes back at the anti-immigration movement). The lyrics tend to be wry and provocative, with a few bits of Randy Newman-esque wordplay.

They keep the music varied—a touch of Broadway here, a taste of prog there—and their flair for melodic hooks is impressive for a young band on its first album. Nor does it hurt that both singers are good enough to front a band on their own, though they show a natural chemistry as co-singers. Guitarist Michael Blount mostly plays a supportive role, though he does get one Queen-like moment to rip out a solo in “Amelia.”

For the record, I reviewed this album in the middle of watching review screenings of the Amazon series Daisy Jones & the Six, which is a decent rock and roll soap opera, but instead of emotionally grabbing songs, it features a bunch of fake Fleetwood Mac numbers. Karma & the Killjoys are the kind of thing I wished I was hearing instead.