Blessed with one of the best leadoff tracks in recent history, replete with driving percussion and reverberating keys, Bear In Heaven’s sophomore full-length barrels into existence from a silence that never knew what it was missing. Sounding like the love child of Tears For Fears and Yeasayer (just listen to single “Lovesick Teenagers”), Beast Rest Forth Mouth stretches out wagging fingers in all the cardinal directions its name would obliquely suggest.

Led by Georgia native and Brooklyn resident Jon Philpot, Bear In Heaven recently congealed into a full-fledged four-piece after years of lineup changes and members’ relocations. The result is an album with hips, high heels tapping at 100 bpm, a throwback that, like recent luminaries such as M83, references new wave without keeling over into it.

But Beast packs more punch than M83’s ilk ever did. “Beast In Peace,” the aforementioned standout, devolves halfway through into a rabid tribal drumming seizure that introduces listeners to the record’s characteristic implacable kineticism. Another powerhouse, “Ultimate Satisfaction” layers terrifying, telescopic synths over bell-punctuated percussion; the effect is dark and twistedly familiar, like a member of Modern English starring in Phantom of the Opera. Though it’s a rollicking pop number, Bear In Heaven riddles it with rhythmic breaks and changes the key every time the chorus reprises, giving the song an edge that’s more challenging than its danceable front end would suggest. Equal parts sinister, euphoric, reverent and subversive, Beast Rest Forth Mouth covers startling new ground even as it looks backward.

Julia Reidy