The (sometimes excessively) verbose brothers are back with their newest album I and Love and You. Well produced and containing a few of the band’s strongest songs, the Avett Brothers’ newest album is not a disappointment. The title track “I and Love and You” manages to avoid the curse of overproduction with just the right amount of strings in just the right places, and Scott Avett’s (the gruffer sounding of the two) voice is well chosen.

The album’s greatest downfall however, is the band’s characteristic painfully earnest, overwhelmingly noble, dare I say cheesy lyrics. There is a track entitled “Ill With Want” which opens “I am sick with wanting / And it’s evil and it’s daunting,” and on the track “The Perfect Space,” Scott Avett sings “I wanna have friends that I can trust / that love me for the man I’ve become not the man I was.”

That being said, the songs themselves are all quite good. I and Love and You features more driving, poppy songs than some previous albums, and they pull it off well. “Slight Figure of Speech” is the Avett’s nod to 1960s surf rock, and the highlight of the album — “Kick Drum Heart” — features charming stutters, an irresistibly bouncy arrangement, and some kick drum accents in the tradition of Ringo’s snare when Rocky is shot.

Lyrics aside, the only thing wanting is more of Scott Avett’s singing. The character of his voice allows us to more easily forgive the occasionally saccharine or woebegone lyrics. Seth Avett’s clean, but excessively dulcet crooning is better suited for harmonies or shouting as on “Kick Drum Heart.” The arrangements that utilize their respective virtues result in the more captivating songs. On the whole, the album is well produced, the songs are sweet and mellifluous and I and Love and You is worth a listen.