Morning Spy have reached a crucial point in their relatively short career: they're ready to graduate from EPs to a full-length. It may not seem like a big deal, but as anyone who has ever purchased a New Order album will tell you, bands that create great singles and EPs aren't always a shoo-in to nail the longer form.

On the plus side, Morning Spy haven't gone the "lazy band's album" route by bundling all of their EPs into a single record. Two tracks from the group's recent Two Horses EP (the Beulah-esque title track and "Ask Us To Dance") made the cut, but the rest is new material -- eight fresh tracks of jangly, folky indie pop. Luna fans who haven't come to terms with that group's dissolution may find some comfort in Jon Rooney's vocals; he isn't a Dean Wareham sound-alike, but his laconic drawl in opener "Princess Vancouver", EP holdover "Ask Us To Dance" and the deceptively twangy, languid "Sugar Witch" plays to the indie-rock archetype that Wareham helped create in his Galaxie 500 days. Allison Goffman, whose sweet, breathy vocals lighten "Foggy Filter", "Ask Us To Dance", "Honeysuckle Baby" and "Overnite", should satisfy the twee-pop crowd -- there's something endearingly (but never fatally) under-polished about her performance, almost as if she's embarrassed to have to sing for us but wouldn't dare to disappoint.

The Silver Age's most important ingredient is Jon Rooney's songwriting; his compositions don't shatter the indie rock template, but they stretch in unexpected directions. "Sugar Witch" abruptly downshifts from a rock-out opening to a sleepy country-rock sprawl (imagine Neil Young on powerful meds), makes room for an odd little drum reverie near the end, and goes out with a cold, sharp stab. "Foggy Filter"'s pseudo-kiwi-pop drone is interrupted for a wholly gratuitous handclap sequence. "Voices and Vigils" would slip smoothly under most listeners' radar, if not for a couple of bristling electric guitar solos.

Overall, The Silver Age is another case of the Fammiliar Formula, Done Well. All but the most finicky of indie-rock fans will appreciate Morning Spy's music; the crucial question is whether the band can turn that appreciation into record sales and concert attendance. We'll be rooting for them.