Formed after the 1997 breakup of singer/songwriter Joe Pernice's alt-country group the Scud Mountain Boys, the Pernice Brothers did an about-face from the spare but well-crafted '70s country sound of their final album, Massachusetts, and came up with the lush, orchestrated pop of 1998's Overcome by Happiness. There were almost no traces of country left in Pernice's sound; instead, influences like Brian Wilson, the Left Banke, and Todd Rundgren seemed to be his main inspiration. The Pernice Brothers dug deeper into their journey into pop on their second LP, 2001's excellent The...