Minus the Bear is most well-known for their asymmetrical drum rhythms, effects pedal experimentation, and double-handed guitar tapping.

But if you give a casual listen to Menos El Oso, you might miss all that. The group is so comfortable in their experimentation that they use their mad scientist tactics to create a record that might be mistaken for a pretty accessible pop record.

Make no mistake: this is a guitar record. But the instrument is used in such a way that it is almost unrecognizable. David Knudson’s playing is augmented by his two-looper set up, which he often plays more like a DJ than a guitarist. In fact, if you’re ignorant to his methods, you might listen to this and think his parts were created on a laptop. This is especially evident on opener “The Game Needed Me,” which sounds a bit like a hip hop sample (both in aesthetic and swagger), but watching him perform it live, it’s evident that much more is happening beneath the surface (especially when he plays guitar while playing his loopers).

And David is just one of five incredibly talented musicians working on this record. Drummer Erin Tate rips through off-time rhythms and laser-tight fills with ease. Cory Murchy lays funkier bass lines than anyone would expect to be here. Matt Bayles’ crisp drum machines and glistening synths augment the other great rhythmic and melodic stuff going on without crowding it out. Jake Snider is often criticized as a boring vocalist, and while I get where that’s coming from, I’m not totally convinced that 1) it’s not a stylistic choice, or 2) that any other vocals would work with this (even if I’ll never get over his mispronunciation of “chaise longue”). And let’s not forget—he’s also a great guitarist in his own right.

On its surface, Menos El Oso (Spanish for band’s name) isn’t as overtly mathy as Highly Refined Pirates, but if you listen closely, you’ll find the group digging even deeper into the elements that made their debut full-length such a rewarding listen. For all of the poppy indie rock on the surface, this is a record that hops genre with ease (as demonstrated by Pitchfork’s tagging them as a metal band). It’s a far more mature album—partly reflected in the shift in tone of song titles. Songs like “El Torrente” and “This Ain’t A Surfin’ Movie” are heartbreakingly delicate. On tracks like “Drilling,” “The Fix,” and “Hooray,” they masterfully combine their intricate composition with their leftover hardcore aggression. “Michio’s Death Drive” combines a Killers-esque synth line with one of David’s best tapping lines. And who can forget “Pachuca Sunrise,” which might be the most gorgeous song of their entire catalog?

Overall, Menos El Oso is the perfect intersection of what Minus the Bear does best. It hints heavily to the more electronic direction they would head on later albums while still maintaining plenty of overt guitar wizardry. It’s emblematic of their brand of cool, collected indie rock while still retaining a fair amount of the emo and hardcore ethos of their early work. And while I might not have gotten deep enough into their later albums to make an informed statement, this record is more cohesive than anything they had done before and more interesting than anything they released since. Though I’ll have to give the back half of their catalog a deeper listen to make sure.