Brooklyn band Yeasayer plunders a Catholic dictionary – Dead Sea Scrolls! Canticles! Divine simulacra! – and cheerfully disregards any associated (earthly) weight for its fourth album, Amen & Goodbye.

Apart from the bland “Silly Me” and the wheedling “Uma”, the tracks are a fine synth pop/rock/folksy mix: “Half Asleep” is pretty and catchy and has a Bollywood twang; “Prophecy Gun” is a study in ambience; and “Dead Sea Scrolls” is as much fun as “I Am Chemistry”, with a bit of a surprise ending. There are two half-minute-long pieces (the title track and “Computer Canticle 1”, more tribal than canticle) apparently tossed in as palette cleansers for all the verbiage and energy.

This is, over all, a far more interesting collection of sound than Yeasayer’s previous album, Fragrant World (2012).

After a New Age-y electronic opening, Amen & Goodbye plunges into the aforementioned “I Am Chemistry”. This is easily the best track here, with a brainworm intro, delicious vocals, and poison-obsessed lyrics cool enough to make up for deficiency in depth: “I’m digoxin from the foxglove plant/ The last remaining VX from Anniston/ […] I am chemistry.” The synth instrumental interlude I was ready to be bored with – this is where the music video becomes too college animation class, when the first nude claymation man slides into view.

And then the Hell-etubbies come in.

You won’t be able to listen to the bright, youthful chorus again without thinking of the creatures performing, with dead smiles, a temple dance for the harvest of toxic alien mould (“My mama told me not to fool with oleander…”). So watch the music video, especially if you like body horror and the art/films of Junji Ito.

Amen & Goodbye will be out on April 1, 2016. It may just alter your brain chemistry. Yeasayer begins its tour of Europe and North America on Feb. 12.

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What binds the eclectic mix is, of course, what binds us all in the human experience: the age-old, timeless theme of love. Oxford University Press published a book about it just this year, which The New Yorker reviewed and expanded upon last month…Something about how the first songs in history were love songs and how the best love songs are sad love songs.

As the album title suggests, Clark’s newest collection comprises sad love songs. But the sorrow isn’t sappy, and the sound isn’t stale. If anything, two tracks, “Not You” and “Bounty,” stand out for not standing out enough, being fairly standard pop-y fare. You could use that time to open another bottle of wine.

Clark earns absolution for ooh-aah-ing down old paths with the offering of “Can’t Have”. After a bittersweet string intro reminiscent of chamber music, “Can’t Have” swells into an energetic, ethereal farewell to former love. It makes ‘80s synth sound as smooth as honey to the modern sinner. Rather than drive you sobbing into a confessional, it will make you want to improve yourself for your next (or current) relationship.

In the same hymnbook, “Floral Print” is a beautiful requiem for anyone with post-parting depression: “Should I just off myself/It ain’t been good ever since she left/it’s like everything’s pointless.” Clark then uses the best part of “Floral Print” – its haunting chorus of “She said we would be together…” – to produce “Part Two” which, like most sequels, is dutiful though not daring.

“Lonely Roller” is a little repetitive, possibly a little misogynistic, but a lot catchy. I suspect it’s the first and namesake track because the title sounds good (and is certainly more SEO-friendly than “Can’t Have”), since most of the album sounds better.

With soft synth and clean vocals, The Lonely Roller is perfect for cruising to if you’re someone who has loved and lost and learnt from it, rather than a sad sack cranking up the bass too high in his neon underglowing car. Don’t be that guy, and don’t miss this album.

The Lonely Roller will be released on September 19, 2015.

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