Four years after releasing their low-key, self-titled 2011 debut, Portland, Oregon duo Priory deliver Need to Know, an effervescent cauldron of optimistic left-field pop.

Initially a somewhat straightforward, folk-flavored indie outfit blending fingerpicked guitars with gentle synths, Brandon Rush and Kyle Sears took a step back, readjusting their vision and recasting themselves as champions of radio-ready TGIF anthems in the mold of bands like Neon Trees and Fun.

The result of this pop makeover was a deal with Warner Bros., who built a campaign around their first single, "Weekend," in the summer of 2014.

A chilled-out summertime party jam with a big singalong chorus of "hell yeah, I just got paid, it's time to get this started," "Weekend" is the centerpiece of Priory's major-label debut which, unfortunately, doesn't deviate too far (musically or emotionally) from that lyric's sentiment.

Songs like "Put 'em Up" and "Friends and Demons" are filled with an unconvincing sense of bravado as lines like "live fast, live young, play with fire, play with guns" are tossed out over equally derivative beats and riffs.

Their common themes of partying, friends, and good times (themes which have inspired many great pop songs) are not the crux of Need to Know, it's how blandly those universal subjects are handled.

Rush and Sears are obviously competent musicians with enough pop acumen to know just what they're doing, which makes the sheer corporate-ness of this album all the more aggravating.

Perhaps if they had chosen to dedicate their four years of reinvention to chasing art rather than charts, their impact would be greater.