Remember after freshman year of college, when you came back home and learned that your friends -- all previously more or less boring high-school students -- morphed into hippies, punk, frat boys and emos while they were away? Remember how you were initially surprised by the changes, then later realized you should have seen them coming years in advance? That's where Pygmy Lush are at on Mount Hope. The band's debut, Bitter River, was a reflection of its roots in the hardcore community, with sharp, jagged punk all over the place, featured a small handful of quiet numbers. This time around, it's all quiet numbers. You're only shocked if you're hanged up on the notion of the band as hardcore smashers. It dropped plenty of hints as to its folk-rock future. Everybody grows up and leaves hardcore behind, but few do it as nicely as Pygmy Lush. Mount Hope is the sort of straightforward acoustic-rock effort that's just as influenced by Neil Young as by Iron and Wine. If Mount Hope is a little predictable in its unplugged-rock fare, you have to excuse Pygmy Lush -- its members spent their youths in bands like Mannequin, City of Caterpillar and Malady, so, really, this is a little new to them, too. Of course, it comes at its newfound love of intimacy from the angle of former ragers. Tapping Kurt Ballou (Converge), the band maintains its grasp on its roots. "Dead Don't Pass" and "Frozen Man" slip into a hazy, loosely strummed world of late-night bong hits and guitar jams around a half-eaten pizza. "Dreams Are Class" picks up a galloping rhythm that alludes, if somewhat unintentionally, to the old west's traveling troubadours, while "God Condition" is a surprisingly layered concoction of rhythm and lead guitar that's much more in tune with rock songwriting than folk strumming. If there's anything telling that Pygmy Lush is relatively new to the acousta-rock thing, it's that about half of Mount Hope settles into the same tempo and strumming patterns (play "Dead Don't Pass" and "Frozen Man" back-to-back), that gets downright repetitive by album's end. Pygmy Lush has grown up and into a new sound. Let's hope it's as clever about developing its quiet side as its better songs indicate it can be -- or not just moving through a downbeat phase.