Here we are, in the warmth of summer. With July commencing, most often summertime evokes a severe longing for those bittersweet romance harmonies best paired with endless nights driving around, crying out lyrics, counting the days and nights until school starts again. This season is stacked, as The Smith Westerns have dropped the very album of this particular summer-gravitational pull.

Soft Will the third full-length album from Chicago trio The Smith Westerns is one full of yearning vocals and sharp leads. The album finds the band at their most creatively heightened vantage point – as sophomore album Dye It Blonde encouraged skillful employment. If their debut showcased an early, underground rawness of a young band recording in a friends basement, 2013’s third effort is one that employees gratifyingly psychedelic balladry.

Lead Cullen Omori appears immersed in his longing efforts by lyric dense vocals. In track “Idol” he claims, “I wish I could see your dark side // I held you up to the light to see if you had a sunrise.” Juxtaposed with the bands dreamy, shimmery summer soundscape, this perfect union of Britpop ideology and heavenly guitar dissolving has “Idol” marked as the substantial soundboard of what to expect from Soft Will.

Omori’s voice is highly reminiscent of Albert Hammond Jr.’s solo effort ¿Cómo Te Llama? – with vocals that unequivocally steer the tracks of the album and the catchiness of pop structured sensibilities, Omori surfs through Smith Westerns third effort with great charismatic strength.

“3am Spiritual” opens the album with a catchy, “Whoa, yeah” chorus, simple six-strum guitar lead and light keys to hone in on the fact that these boys have survived their adolescence and dare we venture to say, grown up a bit in the process. “3am Spiritual” is an opening romancer. With the first words Omori speaks, “It’s easier to think you’re dumb, like you were,” there is a visceral sadness to this newfound introspection. As a band who previously captured an audience with their tales of chicks, booze and rough nights, Soft Will starts (and finishes) with a warmly conscious effort highlighting the real, current and future.

A melodic mix on rock and roll and prog-rock, Soft Will is even lusher than we expected. Closing track “Varsity” swells with orchestral and fuzzed-out melodies. Lyrics “I know it’s hard to be alone // count the days, count the nights, but don’t get by,” set The Smith Westerns progressive anthem that they are no longer those teenagers from Chicago, but in fact, well learned, well lived men who use their reverb, solos and charm to maintain an emotional tenor of last, and achievable musicality.