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.