By the time Mrs. Green Apple released their fifth album, 2023’s Antenna, the Tokyo band had been through a lot. In mid-2020, when they were more popular than ever, the members took an extended time-out after several years of rock stardom. During that period, singer Motoki Ohmori stepped out for a solo album, and bassist Kiyokazu Takano and drummer Ayaka Yamanaka both left the band. Ohmori returned for the beginning of what Mrs. Green Apple dubbed “Phase 2” of their career. Following 2022’s Unity EP, Antenna was the first full-length release that let the world in on what the trio version of the band had in store. Mrs. Green Apple had grown up in public, both literally (most of the members were teens when they started out) and figuratively (the band’s sound had grown vastly in sophistication). But this major reset was the biggest development in their story so far. Ultimately, the Phase 2 approach turned out to be a maximisation of the musical developments that the men of Mrs. Green Apple had been making, even if they were now down to a trio. The hard-charging blend of power pop, alt-rock and punk-pop that had been their starting point remained an ingredient in the recipe, but as early as their second album, they had been branching out into dance music and straight-up pop. Those elements get more time than ever here, along with a simultaneously more elaborate and more nuanced use of electronic and orchestral colours. But Antenna isn’t merely a more eclectic statement than its predecessors. It also marks the band’s growth as songwriters and musicians. The tunes’ melodic paths are full of surprising detours that push things well beyond the usual rock and pop idiomatic frameworks. And Ohmori’s vocal approach is more fluid than ever as he navigates those winding paths, making especially impressive use of his falsetto to take a leap along with his bandmates to a new level.