One look at the cover of California band Rooney’s latest album and you can’t escape an immediate association with The Beatles, mop-top haircuts and all. But one listen and instead of picturing yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies, circa 1968, you’ll imagine you’re driving through Malibu in a vintage convertible, circa now.

Rooney is a five piece rock band of Los Angeles natives that you’ve probably heard of due to their much acclaimed 2002 debut album. However, you might be wondering what they’ve been up to for the past five years. Here’s a brief catch-up session:

After establishing a fan base around L.A. and Orange County by playing many of the area’s clubs on a regular basis, as well as surrounding venues in Pomona and Santa Ana, Rooney began relentlessly touring in support of their debut album until the end of 2004. Over the next few years, they produced two new albums with two different producers and nixed them both. They were eventually able to combine these into something that the band deemed worthy of releasing. The result is Rooney’s highly anticipated follow up, "Calling the World,” which was released yesterday, on July 17.

Rooney is a band that generally garners a mixed reaction. If they’re not being praised for their glaringly obvious similarities to bands like Weezer and The Strokes, they’re being written off as a pop band with nothing of their own to say. What is most impressive is that their sound shows a depth of musical interest. They’re influenced by artists spanning from the sixties to the present, everything from The Beatles to The Cars to Blur. Rooney manages to capture elements from the past and yet never sounds less than modern.

An impressive debut is difficult to beat, but Rooney’s latest “Calling the World” shows that the band has really figured themselves out musically. It’s easy to understand why the album was so long in coming. In typical twenty-something fashion, the band has had trouble finding a clear direction (hence the three attempts at a sophomore album). And while the album may take some getting into –the firsts few tracks are the weakest because they’re clearly trying to avoid being called a pop group— the best moments occur when the band concedes to being exactly that.

Despite the tendency amongst young songwriters to try and say something beyond their years, the members of Rooney are unapologetically young. While they might not be changing the current musical landscape in any revolutionary way, they’ve created a record that’s youthful and yet, bolstered by lyrics that could mean something to just about anyone. “I’m always writing about girls,” says lead singer Robert Carmine.