Lunchbox is a duo from Oakland whose modus operandi seems to be running from its past. In interviews the band has claimed their first, self-titled album is best forgotten, a collection of songs created to satisfy their touring drummer at the time—to get an idea of how that relationship turned out, the band’s gone through at least 10 drummers. Lunchbox’s association with twee landmark Magic Marker Records in Portland, Oregon and the relative success of 1999’s The Sound of Music caused further troubles. Though Tim Brown and Donna McKean have made a conscious effort to satisfy their own personal muses and have never shied away from experimental touches, The Sound of Music garnered Lunchbox a reputation for putting out fantastic twee pop. Cuts like “Lotion” and “In My World” are full of cute keyboard effects, winsome guitars and ba-ba-bas—a very friendly sound that Brown and McKean have been retreating from ever since.

Though the band’s next (and possibly final) album, 2002’s Evolver, and companion EP Summer’s Over dive into the tape-hiss experimental waters, Evolver’s title track show that whatever bluster Brown might put up about his band’s image (”You used to get annoyed when people would call us a ’sunny pop band,’ ‘a happy pop band,’” McKean once said about her bandmate), Lunchbox was still interested in putting out good pop tunes. With a blast of mariachi horns that sound ripped from a Price is Right song and groovy guitar riffs opening the song, it’s clear that Lunchbox added quite a bit of complexity to their arrangements. And even with the distortion-laden fade out to static at the end, “Evolver” is very much a fun-in-the-summertime type of song—albeit one that hopefully balances the band’s experimental tendencies and pop heritage more to their liking.