The Shins’ best music has always been bittersweet: lovely, floating melodies and airy arrangements tinged with a palpable, nostalgic sadness. It’s no secret why the band was handpicked as the musical highlight of the “isn’t life (painfully) beautiful?” romp that was Garden State. At the core of all those vibes is James Mercer, The Shins’ singer, songwriter and only truly steady member. On the band’s fifth studio album, the aptly titled Heartworms, Mercer once again pierces the sweet spot that made his band capital-I Important back in 2001.

Mercer’s melodies are as deliciously odd as his best work—this time wrapped in a jangling pop-rock package that sounds simultaneously taut and about to crumble like building blocks. The warbling far-off folk of The Shins’ earliest output peeks out between more electrifying tunes here: On “Dead Alive,” first released back in fall 2016, Mercer is shuffling down a hazy street, gliding on acoustic strumming and barroom piano while spotting “monuments for awful events.” “So, tonight,” he instructs, “dance and cry.” It’s The Shins’ mission statement in one shimmering, wriggling pop song.

Mercer self-produced all but one track on Heartworms, but he never tries to push these songs into an unfitting new shape. The tunes that call for distant, echoing production get it (the gorgeously airborne “So Now What,” or the gentle carnival feel of “Fantasy Island”), and the more immediate songs play with a fitting punchiness (the downright rocking “Half a Million”). Heartworms holds its secrets close; pop this album on repeat and listen to it bloom.