Back in the day, the kind of music Sean Hobbes and the Hi Res are making was called “blue-eyed soul.” Defined mostly by the race of its practitioners, the genre was as meaningless as most other attempts to pigeonhole musicians.

From the opening note of “Make Me Say,” the first song on Images of Roses, it’s clear that the members of this seven-piece “alternate” soul band, as their press materials describe them, have done their homework. Ethereal keyboard notes lead to a crisp guitar figure before Hobbes’ high tenor comes in.

By the time the horn section joins, you’re hooked. The song is catchy like the proverbial earworm, “It’s a complicated place to take this, but maybe it’s just how I feel/ I didn’t want to be the one to say it/ I didn’t want to make it real/ I’m two days out from Las Vegas, baby, a hard night in Orleans…”

This band came together to stay sane during the pandemic, yet they sound fully formed. With classic soul backing vocals, inventive horn parts featuring trombone, tenor and baritone sax as well as catchy rhythmic breaks, the up-tempo songs jump out of the speakers.

The third cut, “Do it for Me,” brings the tempo down into a bedroom eyes feel. Hobbes reaches for some high notes before sounding exactly like he’s dropping to his knees, begging, “Just do it for me” with a flute wavering like a butterfly over the proceedings.

On the fifth cut, the sound shifts in a more modern pop direction, the horns are ska-like, the vocals spiraling before a rapid-fire synth figure drives it to the finish line like a muscle car. The rest of the album pursues the tried-and-true soul sound the band is chasing.

Images of Roses is a brimming collection of songs with lyrics pondering all the great mysteries of love amid a well-produced, well-paced and well-performed album.