Long Beach’s Valley Arena deliver a dynamic, well-crafted modern rock album—I guess you could say that their sound has evolved and grown up, but they bring enough of their old building blocks to the studio to have assemble something mostly new, yet hazily familiar. They’re able to strike that delicate balance of their noisier/more frenetic elements with newly focused song structure that lends itself well to their individual playing styles.

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Without employing tired band comparisons to the Valley Arena’s angular modern rock sound, it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what makes this band interesting. It might be the calculated bass and guitar composition, or it might be the varied song structure; it’s most likely that they are talented song writers. In an A.D.D.-addled music scene where every band around town has to have a gimmick—which isn’t always a bad thing—it’s still somehow refreshing to hear a three-piece that just writes high-quality, straight-forward rock songs.

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The clear winner for me was “I Knew a Young Girl.” Stripped of all the fuzz and fog that are associated with trying to sound vintage, the song stands alone—haunting but at the same time beautiful. Singer-songwriter Evan Way guides you with his melody until the gentle backing vocals of Brette Marie carry you off. Before you’re wisped away into the Pacific, the song ends and you’re alone.

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