The stuttered vocals on “Sidekick,” the thorny synthesizer that holds together “Portugal” and vocoder harmonies and drum-machine patterns do little to reimagine the colors in which the album paints. The biggest trouble the record faces is lifting from its idols while still sounding authentic. The band continues to place its romances on a pedestal, but crosses over into clichés of dancing and destined love much more often. LGBTQ anthem, in which they declare “We’ll be rude, we’ll be loud/As long as it takes.” When not directly addressing listeners with superficial “victory marches,” as the band calls them, Walk the Moon returns to its bread-and-butter. The attempt at widespread appeal is no clearer than in “Different Colors,” the band’s turn at an With a larger audience to appease, the song structures become more simplistic and the lyrics less mature.

The cleaner, more pop-focused production acts like a whip for every other aspect of the album. The songs are shorter than those on its first album, and more anchored in basic four-chord song formats. Sadly and unsurprisingly, the band’s newest album, “Talking is Hard,” seems trapped by the immaturity of its younger audience that propelled it into the spotlight. The goofy, tongue-in-cheek lyrics illustrated a confidence that was juvenile and twee to a fault, but they are forgiven by irresistible melodies that framed them as hopelessly romantic.

In its self-titled debut in 2012, the poppy quartet situated itself at the crossroads between New Wave icons and contemporary young-adult rock stars. Depending on the listener, Walk the Moon’s freewheeling tunes about lust, cars and self-reproach could be achingly relatable or irritatingly melodramatic.

Walk the moon album cover'=