Mister Heavenly finds the strange crossroads of doo wop and indie rock

Kattner, Thorburn and Plummer are Mister Heavenly.

The idea behind Mister Heavenly's Out of Love sounds both preposterous and pompous. The trio -- a veritable indie rock "super group" composed of Man Man's Ryan Kattner,  Island's Nick Thorburn and Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer -- has called the effort "doom wop," a dark indie rock record inspired by vocal doo wop bands of the '50s. Sounds nuts, doesn't it?

After my initial reaction -- "holy crap this is weird" -- I found the songs on Out of Love to be much more than intellectual exercises or sound experiments but actual, enjoyable songs. True to the concept, a lot of the music has some of the indie rock weirdness you'd expect from a band like Modest Mouse or Man Man, but then, after a good verse of thumping, guitar rock, the band will veer into a Phil Spector-style chorus full of background harmonies and swelling, wall-of-sound-sized key accompaniments.

The real crazy thing is it works.

The record begins a little more conventionally -- at least relative to the players we're dealing with here. In fact it may be the one point that's hard to pin to the overall concept. "Brooklyn Sniper" quickly erupts in a full-on psycho Godzilla rock mode -- I could almost hear Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock on this one -- and may not set tone for the rest of the record, but it does introduce the very bizarre quality of the back and forth vocal qualities of Thorburn and Kattner. Thorburn is a nerdy crooner, who at times sounds like a flat Buddy Holly. Kattner, or the other hand sings in an otherworldly and gravelly howl. At times, it's not too far from Screaming Jay Hawkins.

On the track, Thorburn gives a news-like scen of a gunman on the loose before Kattner begins to wail, from the gunmen's perspective, " I shot you down. You never had a chance in hell. I shot you down and I felt no remorse ..." I guess that's the doom part.

After "Brooklyn Sniper," the music shows much more of that '50s influence. Kattner's piano playing becomes more prominent with "I'm a Hologram" and stays that way through the rest of the record. From here, also, the record really sounds terrific. From rough guitar verses to swelling choruses, the extremes of both sounds hold together really well. It couldn't have been an easy mixing job.

Finally, it's normal for projects like this to produce inferior music. But these are not throw-away songs or extras. These are good, catchy songs. From Kattner's crazy crooning in  "Charlene" to the grim "I don't care if you'll never be mine because I'm yours" chorus of "Reggae Pie" and more, these are songs that stick, no matter how odd.

As a special project goes, Mister Heavenly is really pretty good. I would definitely be interested in a follow-up.