Left to right: Maya Mortman, Amy Hoffman, Daniel Radin and Colby Blauvelt of Future Teens. (Courtesy Adam Parshall)
There’s a number of things that could define Boston’s breakthrough “bummer pop” quartet Future Teens: Their reverence of pop classics, their grindstone, DIY ambition, the wave of buzzworthy cover compilations with their names attached. But to its members, Future Teens is a sort of endless riff of their name, a slight piece of performance art. Listen to the first four tracks on the group’s new melodically polished EP “Deliberately Alive” (out now) and you’ll notice an earnestness and kinetic energy driving the machine. But instead of a triumphant closer, we’re gifted a twangy, somber arrangement of Cher’s 1998 smash pop hit “Believe.”