The big bass sound and treated vocals greeting the listener at the beginning of the Future Cowboys’ second release Life on Mars! suggest right from the get-go that this album is not the typical singer-songwriter affair. Nor is it like the previous solo work of Jamie Bernstein, the principal vocalist and one of three songwriters—along with Eren Cannata and Miguel Oliveira—credited on the album.

Life on Mars! is an ambitious effort that merges many of the techniques and studio effects of mainstream pop with the acoustic sounds of guitar and piano. Yet, despite the extensive use of the studio as an instrument, the songs stand on their own.

“Ain’t No U in California” starts with a delicate piano line and then Bernstein’s spoken-sung vocal joins in along with a distant beat and a simple rim shot. He tells the story of missing his “girl” and by the end of the plaintive lyrics, the listener realizes the tune may have started as an actual letter. “I get this feeling when I look out the window that something is missing… California’s got beauty and they got famous people and that good food, and everything I really need, but they don’t have you… they don’t got you in California.”

“The Heat” gets right to the point—it’s hot in New Orleans. But I’m not sure I have ever heard anyone use the weather as a metaphor for a partner or a foe. “The heat down here’s my baby… the heat down here will bust you, lock you up for days…”

Though singer Tonya Boyd Cannon and the Soul Brass Band make appearances, and Bernstein is a known commodity on the local scene, this album isn’t a “New Orleans” album. It is a well-crafted effort that uses some of the touchstones of the life in the city as a launching pad into the sonic future.