Detroit’s Brendan Benson has always seen his life skewed through a power-pop prism – ideas are twisted, colored in, moved around and spit out on the other side with equally distorted and entrancing results.

His satin-smooth bittersweetness fits perfectly within the ongoing cycle of American guitar-pop bands stretching from The Raspberries and Big Star through The dB’s to Matthew Sweet and The Posies.

Benson’s third release is not an unpolished gem like his 1996 debut, nor does it take a jaw-dropping leap toward maturation like his sophomore masterstroke did six years later.

It’s a calculated middle ground between wise-beyond-his-years youthfulness and respectful awareness of his looming middle-age. The 35-year-old rocks with the kind of vigor only someone both perpetually optimistic and hesitantly cynical can.

Even though the spit-and-shine production is too pristine for Benson’s own good at times, the bulk of the output comes together like an undeniably cohesive power-pop record.

And this genius is hard to miss – no matter what prism you look through.