Kevin Bronson on February 21st, 2011

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The music of Army Navy is an exercise in precision: meticulously finding the right guitar tone or harmonics, layering melodies just so, fastidiously counterposing frontman Justin Kennedy’s winsome vocals against all the jangle. The L.A. quartet’s four-minute confections are a pop classicist’s delight – not to mention a guitar savant’s dream.

So it’s no surprise that Kennedy talks about the making of Army Navy’s second album, “The Last Place,” with the same enthusiasm he’d have describing a show played to thousands of fans. The sessions Kennedy and bandmates Louie Schultz and Doug Randall did over six months with producer Adam Lasus turned out to be a quest, he says, “for something pure.”

• ||| Stream, from the new album, “Ode to Janice Melt”:

“Adam just gets it, whether it’s fine-tuning the nerdy guitar sounds and everything, or being the biggest cheerleader and an avid believer in the songs,” Kennedy says. “Sometimes he believes [in them] more than you do at the time.”

The producer (who’s worked with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Yo La Tengo and Helium) also possesses two other qualities that came in handy – patience and a studio equipped with an arsenal of more than 30 guitars and an assortment of amps. “It was probably bad,” Kennedy says with a smile, “because we could try all kinds of combinations and we knew we’d eventually come up with something we’d like.”

They did, but the process was not without obstacles.

There was some doubt, after Army Navy finished touring behind its well-received 2008 debut (which earned accolades from Pitchfork, Spin and Rolling Stone), whether it would be in a position to mount another campaign. Bassist Ben Gaffin departed because he earned a promotion at his day job at Warner Bros. The band’s finances – buoyed in the beginning by song placements in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” – had dwindled.

Kennedy, whose musical roots date back to the mid-1990s when he played in the short-lived band Pinwheel with Death Cab for Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard, had the songs ready. “Once I got home, they came really fast,” he said of the new batch of romance-obsessed material. “The first album was about a lot of general things; this is more about a specific relationship, and after I was finally able to process everything I found I had a lot to talk about.”

Then Army Navy’s cover of “Get Right Back (Where We Started From)” was picked up for use in the “Shrek Forever After” trailer, and the band was able to afford a little studio time.

Once there, it was a bit tricky because Schultz did double duty, tracking bass and guitar – “but it became a really neat point-counterpoint thing for him,” says Kennedy. “And Doug was really on his game. … Overall, it’s really a step forward for us.”

The new album won’t disappoint fans of Army Navy’s Britpop-leaning debut, which channeled their love for the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Blur, Pulp, Suede and the Smiths, as well as American pop purveyors like R.E.M. and the Posies. “There’s definitely some English blood running through my music,” says Kennedy, whose mother is from Liverpool. “It’s just the pop sense.”

The band, which has now added Dave Marley to replace Gaffin on bass, isn’t sure yet how “The Last Place” will be released; Army Navy’s debut came out on the band’s own Fever Zone imprint.

||| Live: Army Navy plays a Buzz Bands LA-hosted night on Tuesday at the Satellite with A House for Lions,  Sing the Body Electric and Soft Swells.

||| Also: Download “Saints” from Army Navy’s first album.

Photo by Megan Mack