After this summer’s release of the single “Ways To Go,” Grouplove released its second album, Spreading Rumours, on Sept. 17.

In anticipation of this new album, the social media-savvy group tweeted constantly about the album’s upcoming release. To help with advertising, they had posters hung up of their new album art around New York City. See one of the posters, take a photo of it and Instagram it with the hashtag “#SpreadingRumoursNYC” and enter for the chance to win tickets to any of Grouplove’s upcoming shows.

You’ve heard them before. Does the line, “Take me to your best friend’s house…” sound familiar? That’s from the song “Tongue Tied” off of their debut album, Never Trust a Happy Song.

The first track of Spreading Rumours is the longest Grouplove song has ever produced. At five minutes, 33 seconds, “I’m With You” opens with a soft piano trill that crescendos into percussion and electronic-sounding tones. The instrumentals eat up nearly two minutes of the song before Christian Zucconi’s soft tenor –– and almost raspy –– voice joins in. His voice is more powerful than he lets on in the beginning, shining later on with Hannah Hooper’s for the choppy chorus –– “Ah ah ah, oh oh oh, I’m with you.”

A very un-Grouplove sound kicks off “Borderlines and Aliens.” Andrew Wessen traded in the upbeat, guitar sound so typical of the group for harsher chords and riffs. Their signature, happy-sounding guitar isn’t gone long; “Schoolboy,” track three, brings it right back.

Percussionist Ryan Rabin is no stranger to the music scene. You may have heard the lyrics his father, Trevor Rabin, wrote for the band Yes. (“Owner of a Lonely Heart,” anyone?) Rabin’s concise cymbal crashes and bass drum beats can be heard throughout the album, but he’s in his glory in the last 30 seconds of “Sit Still.” It’s the perfect ending to a song –– surely Rabin just jams his heart out in concert.

Wessen switches to acoustic for much of “Hippy Hill” before it takes a chromatic turn, vocally and instrumentally. And, unlike Taylor Swift’s crooning love ballads, Grouplove changes its lyrical content from song to song. The mellow chorus of “Hippy Hill” might even make you laugh out loud: “I’d rather be a hippy than a hipster –– what!”

The distinct, upbeat Grouplove guitar accompanies Hooper and Zucconi’s voices for “What I Know” and seems to sing with them.

Expect “Raspberry” to get stuck in your head with its chorus: “Raspberry, on the ferry, I was feeling kind of seasick on that boat,” though “Sit Still” may have the same effect with its bubbly piano and vocals, courtesy of both Hooper and her keyboard.

The album ends with a very mellow “Save the Party.” Wessen returns to acoustic guitar and Zucconi brings back his breathy voice, while Hooper’s voice seems to echo in the distance.

Pay $7.99 for 13 tracks or splurge –– spend $9.99 to get three bonus tracks. They’re worth it. Especially “Beans On Pizza.”

And don’t miss their show at Rochester’s Water Street Music Hall on Oct. 29. I already bought my tickets.

Originally published in St. Bonaventure University’s The Buzzworthy on Sept. 27, 2013.