Kevin Bronson on May 16th, 2017

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When he’s not expressing himself through his paintings, Jeremy Daly is busy crafting guitar-pop gems with bright melodies and often-cloudy themes. The New Hampshire-born artist got his start in Michigan and released music under the punny band name Lou Breed, including 2016’s “Locus of Control,” made after his move to Los Angeles. Apparently the Lou Breed moniker inspired quite the debate between Daly and his frequent collaborator, Woody Goss (of Vulfpeck), so now they have completed an album as Marias (not to be confused with The Marias).

Songwriting conventions are more important than naming conventions here, though; Daly makes songs that could have been ripped from the classic rock playbook, but leaves others to warm with a lo-fi indie charm. (Daly counts Wilco, Television and the Kinks among his influences, but also Arthur Russell, the Baptist Generals and Tall Dwarfs.) The forthcoming album “Peace Sign,” due in June, is less DIY that Daly’s previous recordings. It was made at Pete Min’s Lucy’s Meat Market studio with an ensemble including Goss and Vulfpeck’s Theo Katzman on guitar, Jeff McElroy on bass and Bill Delelles on drums.

“Beneath the Pavement” chugs merrily into your consciousness like a Tom Petty song, and like the album — which Daly says “ruminates upon failure and mistrust — the overwhelming kinetic energy produced by things gone wrong” — the singer seeks some sort of resolution between life’s disconnections, here between actual love and “this thing you call love.” There’s nothing like a nifty hook for catharsis.

||| Stream: “Beneath the Pavement”