The position occupied by Shout Out Louds in today’s musical landscape is truly not an enviable one. Having essentially mastered their craft (specifically, exuberant, jangly guitar pop with the vaguest detached, Scandinavian attitude) on 2007’s excellent “Our Ill Wills,” the band has spent the half-decade since trying, with various degrees of success, to assert its relevance. Shout Out Louds’ last album, the glaringly unremarkable “Work,” was released to almost complete critical indifference.

From the beginning, “Optica” sees the band really going for it. The opening trio of “Sugar,” “Illusions” and pre-release single “Blue Ice” incorporates a variety of wide screen sonic decorations to augment the band’s keen melodic sensibilities. “Illusions” in particular, with its sharp post-punk guitars contrasted against soothing female backing vocals, is more exciting than almost anything the band has done since its inception. The fourth track, “14th of July,” changes things entirely. Incorporating a series of urgent guitar figures and a disco beat, the song describes with clarity the anxiousness and optimism of a new romantic endeavor. By the time the band gets to its earworm of a chorus (“Will this turn out my way?/ Is the vacation long enough/ To keep me in the game?”) it’s clear that they’ve crafted one of 2013’s best festival-ready rock anthems thus far.

The primary problem with “Optica” is that it fails to go anywhere after that. With the exception of the intriguing, kosmische-as-H&M-soundtrack “Glasgow,” most of “Optica”’s second half is extraordinarily bland. Fortunately for the band, the strength of the album’s singles will likely secure its spot as a solid daytime festival act in the years to come.