Wolf Parade took a turn towards prog on their second album, At Mt. Zoomer. It makes sense, then, that co-frontman Dan Boeckner would relish in the simplified rock ’n’ roll of Handsome Furs, the side project he shares with wife Alexi Perry. After all, when Wolf Parade were making waves with the straight-to-the-jugular indie rock of their 2005 debut Apologies to the Queen Mary, Boeckner and Perry used Plague Park, Handsome Furs’ debut album, as an outlet for more restrained, atmospheric numbers.

Fortunately, the barn-stompers contained on their sophomore album, Face Control, suit Boeckner better than either Wolf Parade’s newfound prog pretensions or the understated Plague Park material. Boeckner is blessed with a wonderfully weary gravel pit of a voice and the seedy rock he and Perry craft here fits it perfectly. Big, direct guitar riffs and Perry’s textural synthesizers provide the basis for Boeckner to howl away. It’s a simple formula, but when it works, like on “Talking” and “I’m Confused,” it’s also a powerful one.

As the album progresses, though, the band’s spartan presentation becomes limiting, and songs inevitably begin to blur together. The band offers sporadic stylistic diversions such as the faux-steel drums on “White City” and the shimmering noise of “It’s Not Me, It’s You,” but these act more as short segues than fully realized songs. Boeckner and Perry’s desire to keep Handsome Furs a marital act also means a drum machine handles the album’s percussion, which sucks some of the looseness out of the otherwise ramshackle proceedings. Still, the skuzzy, stripped-down rock works, and Boeckner’s voice — you can almost hear the cigarette haze and the bags under his eyes — makes it shine.