-With the release of its last album, the Get Up Kids disappointed many fans with a shift in style from energetic emotional rock to mellow alt-country meanderings. However, the introspective emo band returns to its earlier style with “Guilt Show,” released this month on Vagrant Records.

“Guilt Show” matures from previous albums like 2002’s “Something to Write Home About” but lacks a bit of the hard-hitting direction and cohesiveness found on that release. Of course, creating a balance between cohesiveness and variety is an eternal struggle for many artists, and the Get Up Kids do manage to include a mixture of songs with diverse sounds.

With 13 tracks, the band ranges from the short and anthemic, “Man of Conviction,” to the touching ballad, “The Dark Night of the Soul,” one of the best songs in the collection.

Listeners will find more piano on this album than in earlier ones, along with a bit of a slide over to the pop/rock genre. Still, the band retains a good deal of its emo sensibility.

“Guilt Show’s” production is remarkably smooth, and singer Matthew Pryor’s involvement with a side project, The New Amsterdams, hasn’t detracted from the quality of work found in “Guilt Show.”

Although the Get Up Kids can create good, catchy, poppy tunes, the band’s strength and spirit seems to reside in thoughtful ballads, which the band crafts with care. The mid-tempo “Is There a Way Out” blends slight vocal distortion with dark and sorrowful lyrics to produce a classic tearjerker.

“Guilt Show” closes with “Conversation,” a song that combines guitars resembling a young Radiohead with Beatlesque vocals.

Although a few songs on the album sound rather banal and uninspired, overall it succeeds. The Get Up Kids have created another set of good, heartful songs.