Like a well-kept secret, Velvet Crush keeps releasing solid albums to a world blissfully unaware of what it's missing. Ten years after Teenage Symphonies to God, Paul Chastain and Ric Menck remain second only to Matthew Sweet in the American pantheon of Big Star-influenced power-poppers. What they do seems so simple that they're all too often taken for granted. Anyone can come up with an album's worth of catchy, smart, melodic guitar pop, right? They make it look easy, but to do so every time out and for an increasingly cultish audience requires not only talent but an admirable tenacity.

You can assess the difference between Stereo Blues and Soft Sounds, the band's last record, through their titles. This one opens with "Rusted Star", a bold racket dramatic enough to remind you that the band came of age at the height of alt-rock. When you first hear that insistent, timeless one-chord guitar riff on "Do What You Want", however, you remember exactly why VC stood out from all their angst-ridden peers. The raucous fun continues on "Here It Comes", an ecstatic, driving-with-the-top-down anthem worthy of the Cars that doesn't stall into pastiche, while "Son of Ray" and "Want You Now" tunnel further back in time, revving up the tempos to garage-band speed and keeping the songs compact at less than two minutes apiece.

Fine as the faster stuff is, the slower, more expansive songs really dazzle like a band that's not at all afraid of aging gracefully. "California Incline" forgoes the record's usual multilayered tableaux for a cleaner, more lucid, country-flavored arrangement. "The Connection" sparkles and soothes as it builds up to a gorgeous, majestic, three-and-a-half minute instrumental coda that begs to be heard on headphones. "Great to Be Fine" is heavy with slides and pianos, exuding a lot of sweet, sad resolve (kind of like Wilco before they got self-consciously weird). Chastain and Menck even poke a little fun at their underground status on the infectious, easy-going, honky-tonkin' "B-Side Blues".

Instead of searching out new directions (or making unnecessary changes), these guys seem content to remain as comfortable and dependable as a well worn pair of Levis. That might not win them any new fans, but it's sure to appease the faithful, and the consistent, oft-compelling Stereo Blues leaves Velvet Crush's remarkably spotless track record unblemished.