This week’s band to champion is Aussie indie-rock duo Atlas Genius. End of The Tunnel, their first album in nine years, dropped last Friday and holy wow, it’s something to behold. Album opener “Falling So Hard” is splashy, urgent and immediate. Offering the perfect marriage of scissoring guitars and a kaleidoscope of synths “Falling So Hard” snaps you into attention immediately and never once relents.

The sweetly affecting “Nobody Loves Like You” is silky smooth, enveloping and goes down easy. The sun-drenched “Elegant Strangers” is a titanic masterwork with a catchy-as-all-get out chorus and a well-timed guitar solo (yep, they still exist). The best songs are the ones that ling long after the last seconds and “Elegant Strangers” is one such song. That it might be the best song the band has ever written should also not be overlooked.

The rollicking “Romans” matches winning lyrics with a winning chorus and might just be the duo’s version of a statement song. End of the Tunnel’s first half concludes with “Don’t Let Love Be a Stranger” a string-backed effort that is the album’s first tepid effort. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the composition it just feels derivative, almost as if the band has recorded this very song before. If the song has a winning moment it might be the lyric: “All we ever want is connection.” Truer words have never been spoken.

Side B of End of the Tunnel opens with the funk-tinged “Can’t Be Alone Tonight” a falsetto-drenched effort with a bursting chorus and the tortured lyric: “We were meant to die, we were suicide, you and I.” As catchy as all get out “Can’t Be Alone Tonight” is a definite single and another triumphant moment from an album that has them in spades. The 80’s inspired “On a Wave” thrives on a first-rate chorus and a liberal amount of synths. Much like “Elegant Strangers” it just might be one of the best songs the band has writtne to date. Every album has a song you must hear and there is no doubt “On a Wave” is that song.

The full-bodied and spiraling “When the Night Is Over” also has potential as a single and finds the duo once again firing on all cylinders. Much like the album opener “Animals” is direct and immediate. Ostensibly a song about carnal lust “Animals” is buttressed by winning guitars and an indelible outro.

Side B’s only misstep comes in the form of “Do Me This Way” a heavily machinated effort that borrows too much from the band’s last album and very much feels like filler. Thankfully the duo returns to form on “63 Days” a near-perfect pop smash that marries languid verses with a frantic albeit fantastic chorus. Having racked up more than 5 million Spotify listens so far “63 Days” is veritable proof that nearly a decade after their last album Atlas Genius are more than primed to dominate airwaves the world over once again.

All in all End of the Tunnel is tremendous. Nine of the eleven songs all have potential to be singles and at least two of them are without question the best the duo has ever been. End of the Tunnel is exciting, invigorating and a fantastic step forward from a band who so far has done little to anything wrong.