After almost 20 years, college rockers Guster have come full circle, returning to the pop roots that made them campus idols at Tufts in 1991 and got them stuck in your head in the late ‘90s. (“Fa fa fa fa …”) Their sixth and latest studio album Easy Wonderful isn’t ground-breaking or particularly complex—but it’s infectiously upbeat, a guaranteed good time, like a day of sunshine during monsoon season. (Trust me: Those are the good days.) Hand-claps and Beach Boys harmonies lift the sunny ‘60s-pop track “Do You Love Me,” which more than one critic has likened to the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic.” They even put out a Wall of Sound track, “What You Call Love,” with ukulele layered over accordion, sax, harmonica, trumpet, and if you can pick it out, a flugelhorn. It’s practically chamber pop.

But it’s the album’s opening song “Architects and Engineers” that’s the most satisfying, lyrically and musically, hinting at the band’s maturity. “These moments, they can never last / Like a sad old man with his photographs,” they sing. Guster, collectively, is growing up: Three out of four became dads in 2008, which you think would put a damper on their songwriting (3am feedings aren’t known to spur creativity). But the band found that their new routine freed them up to brainstorm more. “Rather than the way it was before where we would live together for four months, this time we would work for like a week or two, break for a couple weeks, work on stuff on our own and then come back. We worked really well that way,” says singer-guitarist Ryan Miller. And after a four-year lull since the last album, the results are worth the wait.

Guster returns to Seattle on Tuesday, January 18, to play the Moore Theatre at 7:30pm. Tickets are $27.50 at stgpresents.org.