Amanda and Joe Ziemba are committed: At the indie rock level, quitting your day job to focus on music fulltime is as financially risky as it gets, but the couple sold their house to do just that a few years ago. The stress of creating art to make money for room and board must be almost unbearable, but, under these circumstances, the Like Young have become a better band.

Last Secrets is their third album as a duo (they married while playing together in Wolfie), and it's easily the most robust. The songs are longer and more developed, the sound is tougher, and the musicianship has solidified substantially. Such are the benefits of tons of touring, including stints with fellow married duos Mates of State and Viva Voce.

About the only thing holding the Like Young back at this point is a lack of memorable melodies. While they've become great at layering and vocal interplay-- at times, this album sounds like the work of six people-- hooks are still elusive in their songs. "Some Closure" has a great chugging rhythm section, well-placed organ, and an interesting ambient reprise of the album's lonely organ intro "The Hell with This Whole Affair", but I can't remember a thing about what those nice two-part harmonies were doing on the chorus-- even after a dozen spins.