The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir

For months the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir sneaked along under the radar as one of Chicago’s best-kept secrets. While other stars soared, SYGC merely simmered, waiting for the right moment to make its move. Or maybe it was just waiting for a new record deal, as nearly three years have passed since the group’s Belle and Sebastian–indebted debut, I Bet You Say That to All the Boys.

In the meantime, songwriter Matthew Kerstein departed and leader Elia Einhorn came clean about his troubled past. In a lot of ways, then, the group’s self-titled sophomore release marks a fresh start, with the B&S B.S. played way down, Einhorn’s autobiographical confessions played up and the sound all over the place.

Well, mostly. “I Never Thought I Could Feel This Way for a Boy” and “Then and Not a Moment Before” still sound straight from the pen of Stuart Murdoch, but elsewhere the music veers from yelping neoflamenco rock (“The World Has No Place for Me”) to classic ’60s pop (“Pins and Needles”) to flowery glam-folk (“Obsessions”). As for Einhorn’s lyrics, his deft collisions of the dark and the upbeat recall Morrissey at his sharpest, if not at his most playfully oblique. Indeed, it’s the element of truth that courses beneath the surface of these songs that heightens their impact—pop delivered with a sneaky punch.

The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir plays Empty Bottle Friday 26.