he Portland, Oregon quartet Junior Private Detective are a good example of how a large percentage of indie rock, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, is stuck in a holding pattern. But they’re also an example of why this doesn’t have to be a cause for complaint. Their self-released second album, Erase, could easily be a lost Bettie Serveert record in terms of its firmly traditional 90s indie aesthetics. But they plug enough fresh ideas and warm, memorable tunes into that template that it’s hard to dismiss the band as anonymous or derivative.

Junior Private Detective, who formed in Ohio before relocating to Portland, crash through tempo shifts, unpredictable song structures, and winding guitar leads with such confidence that it pulls them out of the American indie doldrums. Keyboardist and lead vocalist Emilie Strange sings with unaffected, near-deadpan charm, sometimes sounding almost exactly like Aimee Mann, sometimes like Natalie Merchant. But Junior Private Detective’s songs contain little of the confessional adult alternative blandness that those reference points may imply. The band veers back and forth between complex math rock and more conventional riffs.

“Time Like Television” is the standout track, beginning with a slow build of circular guitars and keyboards, and then a killer lead guitar melody, even if the chorus it eventually leads into is comparatively underwhelming. Meanwhile, the song’s lyrics, which seem to describe getting a call to return home for a funeral—“I could not get home to face death again / So soon after my own failed attempt”—hint at a darker, more personal back story than the album’s other more elliptical lyrics. Strange is strong when she’s clear, like “Edit”’s simple lyric about the act of the letter-writing and the compulsive editing and re-writing that accompanies it.

At the risk of reinforcing chauvinist stereotypes about female drummers, the band’s weak link is Marcella Simon. While her rigid playing suits the band’s many mid-tempo songs, a track like “Sometimes,” which begins at a faster tempo and then splits off into a vamping guitar jam, would benefit greatly from more energetic drumming. It’s those minor shortcomings in musicianship and production values that hold back Erase. But if Junior Private Detective stick together and tour enough to deliver a more road-tested follow-up with slightly higher production values, there’s no telling what they’re capable of.