Field Music frontman Peter Brewis loves a good pop song as much as the next chap. The second studio disc by his Sunderland-based art-rock trio is loaded with the sort of multi-tiered melodies you find in the early work of XTC, and the title of “A House Is Not a Home” appears to pay tribute to Burt Bacharach. But Brewis — the original drummer of Sunderland’s Futureheads, flanked in Field Music by his brother David and pal Andrew Moore — is the kind of guy who thinks a pop song shouldn’t give itself up without a fight. For him, the beauty of a catchy hook can be fully appreciated only if you have to whack your way through a layer of post-punk guitar fuzz or navigate the angles of a wonky time signature to get to it. That’s a risky approach, but here he provides just enough resistance that, once untangled, his complicated knots of riff and beat seem simple — like a magic trick.

Field Music + Menomena + Land of Talk | Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston | March 27 | 617.566.9014