The Fontaine Toups are a band, much like PJ Harvey was a band for a while; the lead singer is also the band’s namesake. She was also the bassist for NYC’s Versus, an underappreciated rock band that seems to now be on permanent hiatus. That’s fine, though; considering the number of side projects the group’s members started up while the band was still together, it’s no surprise that many of the principals should be receiving words of praise for their new outfits as well.

James Baluyut’s +/- is probably the best known and most prolific of the Versus alumni projects, but it seems that the Fontaine Toups are set to catch up. Whereas early +/- can be (poorly) described as Versus laptop-style, Toups and co. are more like Versus with power-pop vitamin supplements—lots of guitar crunch, finely-tuned pop sensibilities and a lively quickstep pace. It increasingly looks like Versus will never record again, but thankfully there doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about.