Rachel Mallin

“Teenage Bodies,” the latest single from Rachel Mallin & the Wild Type, shows a band solidifying its identity. From Mallin’s casually poised vocal delivery to the colorful, resounding portraits of young love and self-reflection, the song marks the group’s most polished pop composition to date.

Mallin wrote, recorded and produced her first album, The Persistence of Vision, in 2014 — a solo effort that spoke to her synthpop sensibilities and landed her on Kansas City radio. That same year, she left the University of Missouri to pursue a music career, and enlisted bassist Justin Walker and drummer Austin Edmisten to form The Wild Type.

By mid-2016, the act — with keyboardist Jesse Bartmess and former guitarist Matt Kosinski — released its debut EP, Degenerate Matters. That same year, The Wild Type earned support slots for acts from Cold War Kids to Metric and The Struts, and widespread recognition in its hometown at festivals such as Middle of the Map and Boulevardia.

Now a four-piece, Rachel Mallin & The Wild Type has found its stride in thoughtful arrangements, a refined lyrical wit and a youthful, resilient pop glow. With “Teenage Bodies,” Mallin confronts familiar coming-of-age themes — the stages of initial attraction, love and all of its uncertainties — and reflects them on who we become as individuals. Her band steers us through these experiences with dreamy electronic soundscapes, an anthemic, vital rhythm section and warm guitar textures, guaranteed to get bodies moving and hearts yearning.