On their third full-length album West Of Broadway, Rachael & Vilray take a character-driven, jazz-soaked stroll through a delightfully warped version of New York City, one where tortoises might replace lovers in bed and moody anti-tourist rants can be crooned with a grin. It's vintage pop with a mischievous wink, performed by two artists whose chemistry and charm make even the weirdest ideas come across as deeply human.

Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive and guitarist/songwriter Vilray have always flirted with sentimentality without being trapped by it. Since forming in 2015, the Brooklyn-based duo has found their own lane, somewhere between Tin Pan Alley, cool jazz, and musical theater, all filtered through 21st-century absurdity. West Of Broadway, recorded at Manhattan’s storied Sear Sound, elevates that formula with lush West Coast jazz textures and a cast of top-tier musicians, including vibraphonist Warren Wolf and sax legend Steve Wilson.

The record’s shimmering opener “Love Comes Around” sets the tone, all vibraphone glow and breezy romanticism. Viewed through the lends of a widower who found love again, it’s a perfect vehicle for Price’s crystalline vocals, which glide through the melody like sunlight through penthouse blinds. “Once I figured out how to get the phrasing in the pocket,” she says, “it almost sang itself.”

But it wouldn’t be a Rachael & Vilray album without a healthy dose of surreal storytelling. Enter “Is It Jim?”, a bittersweet torch song about a woman who sincerely believes her partner has turned into a tortoise. It’s absurd, sure, but it lands with emotional weight thanks to Vilray’s tender lyrics and Price’s delivery. “She’s not trying to be funny,” says Price. “She’s heartbroken, and this is how she’s making sense of it.” The album also finds sharp humor in New York’s contradictions. On the noirish “My Key To Gramercy Park,” Vilray skewers the class divide through the eyes of a suspicious rich character guarding their gated greenery. “I have no power as a songwriter,” he says, “but I can write about a person no one wants to be.” And in one of the album’s more surreal turns, Stephen Colbert makes a cameo on “Off Broadway,” a delightfully grumpy duet that lampoons Broadway snobbery with Broadway’s own leading man. It's the perfect fit for an album steeped in love for show tunes and the strange, opinionated people who love to hate them.

With West Of Broadway, Rachael & Vilray deliver more than a throwback. They’ve created a full-blown world, one that’s quirky, theatrical, and undeniably alive. It’s a New York of the imagination, but like the city itself, it’s brimming with personality and aching with style.