It’s common practice at Smith Street Band gigs for the audience to shout along to every word of singer/guitarist Wil Wagner’s forthright, self-deprecating lyrics. So it’s only natural that the Melbourne indie rockers tapped Joel Taylor—the trusty engineer for their live shows—to helm their seventh studio album. And it’s no surprise that Taylor bottles the big, therapeutic refrains that Wagner does so well. He has plenty of material to draw from this time around, whether looking back at unruly days of yore (“Once I Was Wild”) or far ahead to potential futures (“Teenage Daughter”). Several songs take place at bars, parties, and other boozy way stations, as Wagner questions his arrested development in the face of looming middle age. “Does everyone change?/Why am I still the same?” he repeats amid throttling rock turns on the opening “This Is It.” “Star Child” similarly interrogates the challenges of personal development over agitated power pop, as does The Hold Steady-esque “American Heaven”: “When will I grow into the man I will be when I die?” Yet, for those breathless confessions and recollections, Wagner still leads The Smith Street Band through some of their most melodic, driving songwriting to date. He may get a lot of mileage out of dwelling in the past, but he also knows that time only moves in one direction.