It’s been two weeks since New England quartet Guster released their ninth studio album Ooh La La and hot damn if it isn’t still making an indelible impression.

Side A of the album opens with “This Heart Is Occupied” which might arguably be the strongest song musically the band has ever composed. Beginning with a decidedly arid and dusty Tex-Mex veneer “This Heart is Occupied” ultimately segues into something buoyant, symphonic and decidedly Beatles-esque. Ditto for its sucessor “When We Were Stars.” The song opens like a b-side from Josh Rouse’s 1972 and then scissor kicks into a synth-drenched splash of sun-kissed indie pop perfection. There’s something fresh, current and invigorating about every second of “When We Were Stars.” Who knows if this song will gain traction but there’s a very good chance this is the kind of song that could dominate Sirius XM’s Alt Nation. Thirty years into their career and Guster know their way around a pop song as well as they ever have. It’s the perfect song to play at a pool party this summer or on a city rooftop enjoying your beloved city’s skyline.

From the apex of “When We Were Stars” Ooh La La slithers into the hazy, languid effort “All Day.” The chorus is classic Guster. Hooky, hypnotic and lingering. The problem with “All Day” is that the running time of 3:23 never really allows the song to take off. It ends almost right as it starts swimming. That might mean it lends itself to some nuanced improv in a live setting but from a studio listen it feels almost somewhat disappointing.

That sense of disappointment ends with the vibey “My Kind” an atmospheric and winning cut that is equal parts blues, funk and psych-rock. It also might be one of the band’s boldest songs from a musical perspective. This is Guster being daring and taking chances and gosh it’s just darn near perfect. That winning momentum continues with slinky lead single “Keep Going” which might be one of the best pop songs the band has written to date. Open-hearted, reassuring and unabashedly lush “Keep Going” is Guster kicking ass 30 years on and loving every minute of it. Play the song for your friends after reading this review and tell me they won’t dig it. Trust me.

Side A concludes with the bellestristic “”Gaugin, Cezanne (Everlasting Love)” another languid and hazy cut that is sparse, arid and incredibly slow moving. The song’s latter stages are actually memorable and worth their salt but the song’s sedate opening does the song few, if any favors.

Side B is decidely more uneven than its predecessor but it does have some earworms. The first of those is “Witness Tree” an effervescent and horn-drenched bop that is bright, bubbly and darn near brilliant. Much like “All Day” it ends far too soon and that sense of wanting more might just be intentional. But gosh if “Witness Tree” could have 40 more seconds of horn-drenched euphoria, holy wow, that’d be something.

On the heels of “Witness Tree” the quartet ushers in “Black Balloon” which opens like a bedroom demo and yields to something a bit more lasting but truth be told the song never lifts towards anything memorable. Guster has never been a band to chock albums with fuller but make no mistake about it this is filler if there ever was any. On a ten song album that’s quite unfortunate.

Thankfully the band rebounds with apex cut “The Elevator.” Kaleidoscopic in how it unfurls it is a Phil Spector-esque Wall of Sound that is titanic, triumphant and totally perfect. As is the common theme with this album the song ends far too soon and one can’t help but wish there were an extra 40 seconds of more musical bliss. Ooh La La concludes with the hopeful “Maybe We’re Alright.” Like much of the material on the album it opens quiet and sleepy before morphing into something majestic, resplendent and utterly unshakable. Sure enough it ends far too soon. Again, maybe that’s the point.

In sum, Ooh La La is not Guster’s best album (Keep it Together bears that mantle) but at its best it has some of the band’s best material to date. Thirty years on they’re still making some absolutely gorgeous indie-pop and continue to be one of the most cohesive and most endearing live bands you’ll ever see.