The second POP ETC album by three members of the defunct Morning Benders holds true to the project's rebranded poppier sound and songs while injecting the tone with a boost of sobriety. The perceivable weariness could be at least partly a result of the process of making Souvenir, whose title references the four-year span between albums during which leader Chris Chu has said they recorded hundreds of songs before settling on a complexion. Gone or at least significantly lessened (thankfully, always) is the distracting Auto-Tune from their eponymous debut. However, from the opening singalong woh-oh-ohs, big hooks and slick production are still at the table with generous servings of delay befitting the album's arena-sized tunes. There's a weightier, more sincere-sounding vibe on the whole, though, not coincidentally reflected in titles like Beating My Head Against the Wall and Backwards World. The particularly melancholy Running in Circles itself circles the mourning of a relationship that wouldn't move f