I couldn’t be happier that sunny, optimistic pop is coming back into favor. What’s worse than a world of music that collectively decides to celebrate the dour? I guess it’s all cyclical. Sunny pop, just like the mopey stuff, eventually reaches a breaking point. At that point, it’s struck down and we begin again. Lord help World’s Greatest Ghosts if, on their next LP, they turn their backs on optimism (as is too often the case on sophomore albums). Right now, they’re working in their wheelhouse and the results are often quite stunning.

Maybe I’ve given the wrong impression of the band. When I say sunny, I suppose it’s natural to read it as “naïve” or “cloying.” The truth is, this Portland band’s music is frequently exuberant — driving explosions of color and magick (as they’d say). Passionate vocals are shouted past careening cymbals, power pop guitars and swirling synths. While the lyrical subject matter may occasionally bend towards things like death, the band has a tendency to take it to fantastical extremes. Take the song “Mazes and Monsters” for instance: the notion that we all have only a finite experience in the land of living is expressed by seeing our dear heroes attacked by a terrible monster with a million heads — should one of them die, the other bearing the responsibility to bring them back to life.

It’s all desperately romantic stuff — in a good way. I spoke with the three primary songwriters of the band — Jesse Lane, Casey Lane, and Brandon Anderson — about their creative process.

“We would all bring our band these pieces,” says Jesse Lane, “and then force them together or try and fit them together. We all bring a lot of different influences to the band.”

When asked about influences, they say that, when it comes down to it, their main influences are the other bands they play with around Portland and beyond.

It’s another case of rock n’ roll as family, and World’s Greatest Ghosts render it beautifully.

[The New Frontier Lounge, World’s Greatest Ghosts with Blue Horns, The Nightgowns, Thursday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m., cover TBA, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]