Yuck first crashed into our lives with the giddy innocence and raw sounds of their 2011 self-titled debut. Songs like “Get Away” and “The Wall” showcased a fully-formed band led by two members just shy of 20 and illustrated the power of recontextualizing an Internet-fueled kaleidoscope of influences. The band became critical darlings, saw multiple singles playlisted on BBC Radio One, toured the world twice over, and lead a resurgence of guitar-centered songwriting that continues to play out.

What happened after that initial surge is typical in the history of rock: a founding member left, the band felt hemmed in by outside pressures, and they retreated to hone and refine their sound in a way both honest in intention and mystifying to critics. 2013’s Glow and Behold was more ambitious, more mature, and more pristine than their debut. It showed a band open to transformation and restless in its objectives. It showed a band working under pressure and without a safety net. A band with a future and a past and trying to find a way out in between.

And now, two years after the release of Glow and Behold Yuck has found that new way forward. 2015 finds Yuck finishing up an album whilst feeling content in their past and ambitious about their future. Their new songs are wild and compact, centered and expansive, forward-thinking and referential. They are the output of a band that loves being a band, loves playing music, and loves touring the world over and over and over again. They’re songs that, in short, are exactly the songs that a great band like Yuck should be making.