• Vancouver folk-pop weirdos get a little more normal.

Mother Mother has always been weird. The Vancouver band looks like the Von Trapp children shell-shocked into adulthood. Their previous album, Touch Up, seemed like bouncy folk music on the surface, but their fidgety songs flipped genres with the madcap zeal of a Looney Tunes character and featured vocals reminiscent of jazz singer Blossom Dearie.

O Heart of Mine eschews the weird for a more conventional sound. The vocals haven’t changed, but the band seems less interested in genre flipping, concentrating on a more uniform sound. Occasionally, songs like “Wisdom” show a flash of the old disregard for genre, but most of the tracks hew to a particular pop esthetic not unlike the early work of The Cranberries. Both propel themselves on themes of heartache and a strong affinity for simple and catchy hooks, but hopefully Mother Mother won’t fall into complete irrelevance as quickly as The Cranberries did. Still, O Heart of Mine is a strong sophomore effort from the band, even if it leaves you wishing for a return to weird.