After honing their musical artistry on the fringes of Don Caballero and Professor Murder, respectively, Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen joined forces to form Restless People, which eventually morphed into their current project, Tanlines. And while the duo have certainly kept the music world waiting long enough for their debut full-length, having teased their fans with catchy singles, remixes, and an encouraging EP over the last few years, now that their rousing new album, Mixed Emotions finally sees the light of day, it mostly lives up to the promise suggested by their earlier work.

While the record is clearly not without its occasional missteps, particularly on the weaker second half, the ebullient synths and relentlessly upbeat rhythms of these songs frequently allows the fresh material to soar despite the sombre subject matter that intermittently pulses at the heart of the album. The textured songs on Mixed Emotions are imbued with infectious, buoyant arrangements that keeps the material bouncing even when Emm sings of heartbreak and anxiety. But his muffled, indistinct lyrics often form another sonic layer to these numbers, blending in smoothly with the dancefloor beats and catchy pop melodies rather than being the focal point of the tracks.

The rumbling bass of ‘Brothers’ gets the album of to a impressive start, as the churning cadence of the song builds amidst the spiralling synth strains and Emm’s robust vocals. There is a celebratory, Latin flavour to ‘All Of Me’, and a blissful, expansive M83-like sound to ‘Green Grass’, which are both just begging to become summer party anthems, but clearly aren’t as mindless or soulless as most of the current chart-topping pop hits. Things then slow down quite a bit for ‘Abby’, which sounds like a tame Yeasayer B-side, and the plodding ‘Yes Way’, sacrificing some of their brazen originality in the process, and losing the restless energy that made the start of the album so strong.

While ‘Laughing’ continues the downtempo shift, there is a playful, pleasant strut to the jaunty guitar riffs and rhythms that are very Graceland-esque, and the song gets the album back on track, albeit only temporarily. ‘Not The Same’ is one of the clear highlights of the album’s second half, as the slow-burning, snyth-heavy track eventually swells into a glorious outsider anthem full of sonic flourishes that only add to the song’s simmering emotion. But the momentum is lost by the conventional pop structure of ‘Lost Somewhere’ and the bongo-infused island swing of ‘Real Life’ and ‘Cactus,’ which end up sounding rather tame and unimaginative, especially when compared to the innovative tracks that launched the album.

There are some pleasing elements of New Romanticism layered within the retro throb of ‘Rain Delay’, but the promising track only lingers on the edge of distinction, and fails to completely coalesce or commit entirely to the warm sentiments it suggests. ‘Nonesuch’, on the other hand, is an elegant blend of raw, unvarnished emotions and evocative, old-school synth-pop tones, and ends the album gloriously.

While Mixed Emotions is indeed an uneven affair, there is enough originality and innovation here to suggest that once Tanlines hit upon a consistently creative sound that they can sustain over the duration of an entire album, there won’t be anything mixed about the positive reactions they will eventually receive.