Strawberry Mountain  proclaims itself as a “DIY futurepop collective,” an especially apt descriptor of its new album, Rebirth, which follows the group’s EP, Pleasure, that dropped in May of this year. The opening track of Rebirth, “Double Summits,” establishes anticipation for the rest of the album, with its busy guitar and textured synth weaving a very layered, yet effortless, web of sugarblast electric sounds that believably could originate from a place called Strawberry Mountain.

The second track, “Oxford,” makes Strawberry Mountain sound increasingly familiar in a way you can’t quite place. It reminds you of a memory you only vaguely remember — of the band playing music in a packed house show, sweaty college kids clutching their Rainiers, nodding and swaying to the driving beat of the drums. As the album progresses, this association doesn’t completely go away, but it feels sonically more mature than what was heard in that sticky-floored basement.

Rebirth, as a whole, sounds put-together, with careful thought and intent put into its composition. This is apparent both holistically and on individual tracks, though it still has that undercurrent of the reckless abandon from that crowded house show.

Title track “Rebirth” opens with some aggressive drums but eventually plateaus out into a steady thrumming beat. The first half of the track is fast paced and has a certain urgency to it, and this effect is well-supplemented with the repeated “hear me, hear me” peppered in throughout the track. Eventually, this builds up to the release of “breathe” at the midway point of the over-seven-minute song. Things slow down and decrescendo to the point where you think it’s about to end, but the guitar melody begins to build again. What ensues has a definite upbeat rhythm — the earlier, dark urgency is gone — and it sounds more like something you would associate with a sunny day. The first half of the song is the uphill battle of reaching the top, and the latter part of the track is the easy lope down. You’d hope Sisyphus has this on his playlist.

“Rebirth” is a very fitting title for both the track and the album in this way, as it feels like two very different songs came together seamlessly, rebirthed after the breath. This demonstrates Strawberry Mountain’s impressive versatility while setting the listener up for the remaining tunes.

Track five, “Digital Age,” definitely errs on the post-punk rock side, sonically, as opposed to the more psych-rock feel of the rest of the eight-song album. This is the song those shaggy haired college boys would get down to with some tasteful headbanging. Lyrically, the song matches its tone, as demonstrated in the most memorable line: “nothing will destroy the human race…except itself.”

“Magnificent Surprises,” track seven, is reminiscent of the latter half of “Rebirth,” with the same kind of consistent light-hearted guitar refrain. It almost sounds like you’re in a video game in which the goal is to collect some nice shiny coins — still fun and stimulating but with low stakes, which makes for a smooth segue into final track “Lovely Celebration.”

“Lovely Celebration” is a solid closing track to the album, continuing the lax tone “Magnificent Surprises” establishes. Structurally, it is similar to “Rebirth;” there’s a clear inflection point midway through the almost-six-minute song, at which the pace slows down significantly, contributing to a more somber timbre. This darker turn is also supplemented by the slightly monotonous vocals that croon, “please forgive me / please let me forgive myself,” to the point where the line “life’s a lovely celebration” sounds more like “life’s a lonely celebration.” Either way, Rebirth proves itself to be a celebration in and of itself, and a worthy soundtrack to anything worth celebrating.