Led by co-singer/lyricists
Nick Everett and
Eliza Niemi, Montreal-based indie pop group
Mauno established a style that's both sophisticated and welcoming across their first two releases in 2016 and 2017. Two years later,
Really Well returns the four-piece lineup from 2017's
Tuning, all of whom contributed to writing and arranging the album. Like
Tuning, it reveals a mercurial mix of ear-friendly influences as the set glances between '60s pop inspirations; jangly, homespun guitar pop; and the tighter sounds of progressive rock, sometimes within the same song or even simultaneously. The record opens on a quirky, guitar-vibraphone track led by the breathy-voiced
Niemi that includes conspicuously unorthodox chord progressions. In contrast,
Everett's "Reeling II" settles into a bouncy, hummable guitar pop, at least before tripping out on a meandering, drum-less passage and eventually closing on humming noise and a few seconds of studio outtakes. Next track "Half It" is a take two of sorts that locks into a proggy duo-guitar solo midway through. "Halfway to good now/Half it again now" are among its self-reflexive lyrics, including some about making music. In addition to these types of unpredictable developments, off-kilter polyrhythms mark many of the songs, such as two very different tracks: the woozy,
Niemi-led "Expectations" and the frenetic,
Everett-led "Notice." For all of its juxtapositions, the album goes down easy thanks to an overriding warm wistfulness partly built from extended chords and breezy melodies, and the fact that only three of the 11 songs cross the three-minute mark. Closing on the seductive, slow-grooving "Wouldn't Give,"
Really Well is ultimately a satisfying head-bobber.