A brief refresher: Harvey Danger formed in Seattle in 1994. Their first record, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?, released on Brooklyn’s tiny Arena Rock Recording Company, became a surprise smash when the song “Flagpole Sitta” became an inescapable summer staple on commercial radio and MTV in 1998. The record, which cost about $3,000 to make, was re-released by a major label (Slash/London) and eventually sold half a million copies. The follow-up, King James Version (London/Sire), was released in September 2000 (exactly five years and one day before the release of Little By Little..., as it happens). While the sophomore effort was nowhere near as successful as its predecessor (it’s a long story…), KJV maintains a surprisingly strong cult following despite being out of print.

Anyway…

After a three-year hiatus, Harvey Danger began generating new material in early 2004; the songs quickly began to reflect a significant stylistic turn. In place of the distorted alt-/ garage- rock of the band’s first two records, the sound of Little By Little… is mellower, less caustic, more melodically adventurous, reveling in a classic pop sensibility that owes everything to the band members’ evolving musical interests. The biggest change is the dominance of piano throughout—a fitting development given pianist/guitarist Jeff Lin’s classical training on the instrument. Songs like “Wine, Women & Song,” “Little Round Mirrors,” “Happiness Writes White,” and “Moral Centralia” define the band’s confident new direction. “Cream & Bastards Rise” (which will also be released as a single/EP on Kill Rock Stars in November) and “Cool James” provide reminders that the band can still make with the catchy indie rock when the mood strikes, while “War Buddies,” “Incommunicado,” “What You Live By,” and the haunting finale “Diminishing Returns” find HD pushing into less easily classified musical terrain (a fleck of near-jazz here, a dash of anthemic balladry there, and is that a French horn on “Little Round Mirrors”? Damn straight…).