After nearly self-destructing as a result of self-producing their first two full-lengths, Springfield, Missouri's Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin decided to go on the hunt for someone else to man the controls for their third LP, Let It Sway. They ended up with Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla at the helms, and the foursome holed up at Wisconsin’s storied Smart Studios (where Nirvana tracked Nevermind) to track most of the 12-song set before applying overdubs and finishing touches at Walla’s Oregon studio and their own bedrooms and basements.

What a difference another pair of hands (and ears) make. The band tracked a song a day – versus one a song a month for Broom and Pershing – but the results don’t sound rushed at all. Instead, SSLYBY seem to have captured a 40-minute snapshot of a band ready to bust out of its comfortable little cocoon. If their previous efforts were the slow, albeit charming, musings of a band in childhood, then Let It Sway is SSLBY’s statement of independence after walking the stage with a high school diploma.

Although the songs on Let It Sway still have the warm pop glow that “Oregon” and “Glue Girls” brought to SSLYBY’s previous LP’s, the band seems to have traded the cutesy vibe for a more mature, focused, sonic dynamic. All of the youthful energy remains but it feels better channeled on cuts like “Stuart Gets Lost Dans Le Metro”, which introduces a simple musical theme in the song’s opening minute and expounds on the passage until the song comes to it’s deceptively simple conclusion. It’s the sound of a band confident enough to let a song’s texture and layers embed themselves into a listener’s mind instead of over stimulating him or her with an over abundance of slick guitar lines and complex chord changes.

It's still not a downright serious affair and they debunk the Bible (“In Pairs”), self loathe (“My Terrible Personality”), and even name drop their favorite monster on “All Hail Dracula!”, which perfectly blends the simple pop joy of Pershing and Broom with the group’s newfound maturity. Over three minutes, the band lays down the album’s most danceable sound bed while singer/guitarist John Robert Cardwell proclaims his allegiance to his favorite bloodsucker with lines like “All hail Dracula/I really think we could be friends/I’ll let you suck my blood if you wanna know how I taste.” The song is the consummate example of Let It Sway’s ability to crack a smile on the listener’s face while still making them feel like they’re still listening to something worthwhile.

In the end, this album is exactly that. Worthwhile. On it’s closer, Cardwell sings “Nothings made to last these days/but I’m gonna be by my last days,” and if the progress SSLYBY made on Let It Sway proves anything, it's that they’ll definitely be relevant for a long, long time.