Per Huey Lewis, the heart of rock & roll is, after all, in Cleveland, so despite my frequent biases against the mistake on the lake, the city has produced bursts of vital records over the years and these days we are in the tail of another comet. With Obnox, Cloud Nothings, and now Herzog showing a stunning prolificacy for raw guitar rock, I wouldn’t call it a revolution as much as a revival of what has always been there. Pointedly, for Herzog, it’s always been The Mice. My first experience with Herzog was walking in on the band tearing through a cover of “Not Proud of the USA,” with a deft balance of idiot glee and power-pop precision. Cartoon Violence, their 2012 sophomore release, was that adoration of Bill Fox taken to a logical modern platitude. It was all sugar and quick riffage, almost dizzyingly so, with potential for miles.

With Boys (Exit Stencil Recordings), there’s a definite maturation, both sonically and aesthetically. It has space, room to breathe, and songwriting that doesn’t as much mimic as it does place its influences under the surface in homage. Lyricist (and non-performing band member) Tony Vorell’s vision is dead set on nostalgia and the Peter Pan complex of never wanting to age. The perma-teen energy suits the band well on “Full Stick” and “Bicycle Girls,” two infectious pop-punk blasts with gang-shouted vocals and catharsis smeared on the bathroom walls of a high school in a John Hughes film. Most of the lyrics here deal in almost memoir-esque narratives about being the outsider, coping with peer pressure, and making music once you discover like-minded friends. “Mad Men” is ultra-meta-indie, asking, “What’s the point of writing songs, if nobody ever wants to sing along?” Though hope seems dwindling, that reality is not going to keep them from pushing on.

Boys shines because of the Herzog’s diversifying. The album could almost be considered a concept record about growing old and making decisions as to when the dream is going to end. Both “It’s Hard Getting Old” and “Oh No” revel in mid-tempos, instead of breakneck speed. On the former, even melancholy seeps into the folds. There’s a penchant for ’90s lore, as well as shoegazing waves of guitars and thick distorted tones. To say that Herzog also remember the giants of their youth, be it Weezer or Smashing Pumpkins, is not something to scoff at when they play it off this well. Come to think of it, isn’t the cycle about to (or has already begun to) wash us over with the ’90s again? As long as it sounds as good as Boys, go ahead and bring it.