It seems pretty safe to say that after 15 years in a band, you have your sound dialed in. If the first few years are about discovery, then the rest of the time is about refinement. That’s not to say that it’s all AC/DC, but it’s not Scritti Politti either.

Cincinnati-based band Wussy was formed in 2001 by former Ass Ponys frontman Chuck Cleaver and singer/guitarist Lisa Walker, along with Mark Messerly on bass and Dawn Burman on drums (later replaced by Joe Klug). Eventually John Erhardt, one of Cleaver’s Ass Pony bandmates, joined on pedal steel and guitar. It was inevitable that the Ass Ponys’ DNA slipped in, as was the alt-country grit that seems to be a particularly Ohio thing. There was always enough going on with Wussy to keep listeners on their toes while also possessing a comfortable familiarity. Things made a certain kind of sonic sense. So it’s quite a surprise to find that for its sixth album, Forever Sound, the band was caught shoegazing. To Wussy’s credit, they didn’t half-ass the shift. From the opening feedback squeal and bassline of “Dropping Houses,” the album plays like a lost piece of the 4AD catalog or something from one of Ride’s contemporaries.

Sure the ’90s are back in a big way, but who’d have thought Wussy would be the ones to make a record like this? The strangest part is that it doesn’t seem especially unusual. All the parts that make up Wussy are there, just in a slightly different suit. Cleaver and Walker still alternate lead vocals, harmonizing and backing each other up, and there’s still the underpinning of country present. You can even hear the pedal steel, only it’s not doing the long lonesome thing. But Forever Sounds is wrapped in a blanket of sonic shimmer, and there’s an ethereal aspect saturating the proceedings. And it’s not just Walker’s vocals that seem to float and flit around. Even Cleaver’s idiosyncratic wail has an airy quality.

Lyrically, Forever Sounds balances the very personal with the very abstract, often in the same song. After all, this is a record that invokes The Big Lebowski (“Donnie’s Death Scene”), The Wizard of Oz (“Dropping Houses”), and sidewalk sales (“Sidewalk Sales”). There are lyrics that will be puzzled over and others that cut so directly no translation is needed. Take, for example, this classic line from “Hello I’m A Ghost”: “It’s been nearly two years. We’ve barely begun. As of now you’ve undressed 700 more times, and I’ve missed every one.” But it’s also paired with a chorus that seems flippant or abstract while being more metaphorical than literal: “I can be any damn thing that I want. So, ‘Hello, I’m a ghost.’” And the album is full of moments like that.

It would be too easy to evoke the “old dogs” cliche, but Wussy has proven if nothing else, there’s still the potential for surprise even after 15 years. Forever Sounds may not be the record that finds them a bigger audience, but it certainly shows that they’re not a band to be ignored.