The guys in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti band Mumble are itching to get copies of their new “Happy Living” CD into the hands of their fans — especially since it’s been four years in the making.

The group, which delivers a mix of power pop, new wave, progressive rock and psychedelia, will celebrate the new record with a CD release party on Saturday at Savoy in Ypsilanti, where copies of the disc will be on sale.

Mumble was initially formed in the late 1990s by singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboard player John Hawthorne, bassist Rick Camburn and drummer Landon Ewers in Michigan City, near Jackson. The group began playing around the Ann Arbor area in 2000, says lead guitarist Eric Empson, who joined the band in 2005.

The original lineup “had a real DIY ethic, and were heavily into Guided by Voices,” says Empson, adding that they previously released two albums and one EP in that indie-rock/lo-fi vein, the most recent being “Mumble Tried to Kill Me” in 2005.

Empson and the others initially crossed paths at a 2005 David Bowie tribute concert at the Elbow Room in Ypsilanti. By that point, Empson’s previous band, the Hopescope, had broken up, and he was looking for new collaborators.

“I liked them, and then I heard them at another show, and we started talking about getting together," says Empson, who grew up in Richmond, Michigan. “When I met them, I’d also already made a couple of albums with my previous band, and I thought I could add more of a pop sensibility, so initially it was a bit of an adjustment, as they got used to my sensibility, and I got used to theirs.”

Mumble actually has two drummers who alternate the live gigs, depending on their availability. Vic Kinsey also drums for the band. He and Ewers each played on about half of the tracks on “Happy Living,” says Empson.

“When we were making the album, that was great, because we got that variety of drumming styles, depending on the song. Landon has more of an off-kilter, polyrhythmic style, which is great for the more prog-type tunes, while Vic is more of a powerhouse, in-the-pocket player.”

At Saturday’s show, the group will play "Happy Living" in its entirety. Ewers will play drums on the first seven-song set, with Kinsey manning the kit during the second six-song set.

Currently, three of the members live in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area, including Empson, while Camburn resides in Michigan City, and Ewers lives in Portage.

Mumble’s new music taps into a wide array of influences. On the track “In It Now,” Empson carves out a glam-metal guitar riff, ala Queen’s Brian May. “Mad Drivers,” “Paper Covers Rock” and a couple of others jump to a jittery groove that recalls late-70s XTC and Elvis Costello, and the vocal harmonies on tracks like the slinky, loping “Today I Start Running” have a Beatlesque quality.

“Yeah, we’re definitely into all of those bands, plus the Raspberries, Jellyfish, the Police and Minus the Bear,” says Empson. The Beatles’ influence can also be heard in the songcraft of several of the more melodic, pop-savvy tunes.

Content-wise, Hawthorne indeed conjures some vivid or dark images and scenarios. On “Bloodletters’ Town Hall,” he wonders when a group of judgmental religious folks will realize that Jesus is among them. “Big Blue Ball” describes a doomsday scenario in which the characters barely escape the destruction of the earth by flying off in an interstellar craft. And “Daffodil” sifts through the emotional wreckage of a crumbling relationship.

Empson is 40, while Hawthorne and Camburn are 39, so “we’re sort of past the point of wanting to start driving around in the back of a van every day, going from gig to gig,” he says. “We all have day jobs, and we’re fine with that.

“But we wanted this record to be more accessible. In the past, John had written a lot of darker, more progressive songs. When I first heard them play, they had a strong following among musicians, and among people who were into that more complex prog sound — but I think a lot of other people ‘didn’t get it.’

“But after I joined, and we talked about what the record should sound like, and what we thought we wanted it to accomplish, he was totally on board with writing more pop-conscious melodies. We wanted to craft songs that were 3½-to-4 minutes long. We wanted the album to sound like a professional, major label record. So we were pretty painstaking about it.”

Listen to a selection of songs from Mumble's “Happy Living”:

The desire to devote that much craft to the writing, rehearsing and recording of the songs — plus the fact that they do work at those day jobs — accounts for the four years it took to complete the album.

Empson is optimistic about the album’s commercial possibilities. “I really think there are five or six songs on here that would make good radio singles, so we’re really trying to get the music out there," he said. "Jeff Elbel, who produced the record, has an indie label in Chicago, and does some music licensing. So that would be pretty cool, if some of these songs were used in commercials or something.

“We’re not above that,” says Empson matter-of-factly. “That would definitely give the album and the group some great exposure.”

Kevin Ransom, a freelance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com, can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.

Watch the video for Mumble's "In It Now":