Like his heroes John Lennon and Ray Davies (and in keeping with current solid-senders Ron Sexsmith, Jules Shear and--especially--Elvis Costello), the band's songwriter Adam Levy is a pop formalist who borrows and adapts liberally from time-tested forms in multiple genres while indelibly stamping each song with a voice, world view and sense of irony all his own.

Levy's gift for creating memorable melodic constructs is sweeping, in fact; there isn't a tossed-off line or an easy rhyme to be found in the lot; Honeydogs' tunes are all meat--no filler.