The never-quite-jam band goes full-scale pop rock. There’s a long, healthy history of jam- and prog-friendly bands distilling their big ideas and technical expertise into what basically ends up being blockbuster pop rock: think Genesis in the ’80s, Bruce Hornsby in The Grateful Dead (or just ’80s Dead generally), or even Dire Straits, who could play “Walk of Life” one minute and abstract toward jazz the next. Enter never-quite-jam band Goose’s BIG MODERN!, an album that combines the expansiveness and creativity of a band like the Dead but is anchored by the tight, anthemic pop rock of tracks like “Big Modern!,” “Good2B,” and “Savenger.” That mix makes them as kin to artists like Coldplay as The War on Drugs, both ’80s-tinted yet distinctly contemporary. No longer fanning out, they’re dialing it in.