The risk of making anything that becomes beloved is that it comes to define you, to foster expectations of what you do and even who you are. Only a glance at the vast catalogs of cousins Mike and Nate Kinsella shows how wide their musical interests have always been, from the idiosyncratic experiments of Nate’s Birthmark and his time in the great Make Believe to Mike’s twisting path among Cap’n Jazz and Owen. (Fun fact: They both even shared stints in Joan of Arc.) But at least right now, Nate and Mike’s most recognizable work together may be their contributions to American Football, a band that entered its celebrated second act after a 14-year absence, just in time for a vaunted emo revival. Nate joined American Football for that return, LP2, and 2019’s LP3, buttressing their tender songs and skywriting guitars with his strong but subtle bass. Perhaps even to their surprise, The Kinsellas became newly synonymous with American Football. But as the pair prepared to start writing new American Football tunes, perhaps noodling with guitars in the same room, Nate revealed a series of short synthesizer loops, potential prompts for a different sort of pop song. “I want to be in that band,” Mike remembers telling him. And so, now they are: LIES, the new Kinsella cousin duo, represents the first time they have written together without anyone else. What’s more, their gripping self-titled debut, Lies, rewrites the way Nate and Mike are expected to sound, breaking free of what could have come to define them. These are explosive but intricate pop songs, their striking hooks nested in glorious composites of keyboard melodies and digital textures, powerhouse rhythms and sweeping strings. Above propulsive drums and kaleidoscopic sequencers that will excite the Depeche Mode faithful, Mike croons of modern disaffection during “Camera Chimera.” A brooding but beautiful survey of betrayal, “Rouge Vermouth” suggests Tears for Fears on a morphine drip, keyboards refracted like sunlight split by raindrops. The bass propulsion of “No Shame,” the tricky rhythms of “Knife,” the danceable dynamics of “Broken”: These are among the most compulsive and instant songs the Kinsellas have written in long-distinguished careers of memorable tunes.