The line between twee and cute is rather fine. The latter is a useful device in indie pop and rock. The former takes the latter and makes it, as the Urban Dictionary put it, “something sweet, almost to the point of being sickeningly so”: something like pouring Hershey’s chocolate over a bowl of Skittles.

In simpler terms, indie darlings She & Him are twee, Welsh psych-rock quartet Howl Griff are cute. Both have great songwriting, to be sure, but S&H douse their songs in so much cuteness that they become the embodiment of twee. HG, conversely, sprinkle cuteness over their third outing, Fragile Diamond, where it fits into the compositions but leave them alone when it doesn’t. The backing vocal “woo-hoo”s from the mod-esque ‘Sharkfins In The Sky,’ for example, aren’t irritating and don’t feel forced because it’s not the fourth or fifth element of adoreable-ness piled onto itself. Instead, they’re instantly huggable and raise the stature of the songwriting that extra inch. Even when they borrow half of a JJ Cale blues lick for ‘Everything’, the second half of HG’s variation is a charming swirl. It’s still blue sky loveliness.

This careful equilibrium carries over into the lyrics, too. Witness the balancing act demonstrated in opener ‘You Don’t Have To Leave On Your Own’: “You don’t have to be on your own/Cos God made me” is cheesy and high-school-precious, and shoved up against “You don’t have to be on your own/Just don’t leave me”, which is pleading and honest. Even better is the sugary chorus of ‘International Dateline’: “Cos I’m changing my mind and I’m crossing the line/I’m making the time up to you/Tonight turns today and tomorrow’s okay/I’m setting a date with you”. The lyrics are charming, but the clever puns buried underneath the song’s title push the song beyond aww-shucks novelty.

Yet, it’s that same “aww-shucks” feeling that brings the record to a perfect climax, further validating Howl Griff’s way with cuteness that their peers seem to lack. During the aforementioned ‘Everything’, singer/guitarist Hywel Griffiths practically intones “But love changes everything/And love is all you need to bring”, making the statement seem closer to fact than abstract concept. The psych-blues-rock riff of the verses opens up into bubbly guitar in the chorus, effortlessly marrying indie rock and the endearing songwriting. In other words, you can be adorable without descending into hipster irony.

Listen to Fragile Diamond