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“Sometimes if I shout / It’s not what’s intended / These words just come out / With no cross to bear.” When Bob Nanna sang these words on Hey Mercedes’ last effort, The Weekend EP, he was essentially apologizing for the emo paradox--tortured boys wailing and flailing over the girls who won’t have them, most likely because of all the wailing and flailing.

Problem was those articulate sentiments weren’t his. They’re from a cover of When in Rome’s “The Promise,” hidden at the end of the record. And worse, they only underscore the soft songwriting that’s held Hey Mercedes back since their debut, 2001’s Everynight Fire Works. Loses Control is an optimistic title for their follow-up, but nearly everything here is competent and methodical: the kiss-off on “It’s Been a Blast”(“Commandeered the number of your new beau’s home”); the thin metaphors of “Boy Destroyers”; the breezy lamentation of “Oh Penny.”

Nanna fares better on the alliterative ballad “Playing Your Song,” which evolves into a ’50s harmonizer, and amid the New Romantic echoes of “Knowing When to Stop.” On the temperate closer, “Go on Drone,” another night at the bar with wifey turns pugnacious: “She says, ‘Oh baby, were you ever meant to be’” The best thing Nanna can come up with in response is “Well, maybe,” and while he shouts it loud, trying desperately to animate the moment, it’s not what you’d call a comeback.