Life on planet Earth is a funhouse maze of emotions—one day you’re giddy, the next impossibly sad. And then you pick yourself up and put one foot in front of the other again, because really, what’s the alternative? Life is precious; savor every drop you can.

Milwaukee trio Trolley—Michael Perotto (guitars, keyboards, vocals, production), Paul J. Wall (guitars, vocals), and Terry Hackbarth (bass, guitar, vocals)—were deep into production on the group’s fifth album when Perotto passed away suddenly at just 47. After absorbing this devastating blow, Hackbarth and Wall resolved to finish and release the album-in-progress, recruiting producer/mixer Shane Olivo onto the project and dedicating the resulting album to “our friend and sonic architect” Perotto.

Those circumstances inevitably color how one receives A Carnival Of Grey & White. It’s an album that ends up functioning well as both celebration and elegy.

Trolley’s music is defiantly, lovingly retro, a pastiche of British Invasion / Mod-era backbeats and jangly New Wave power-pop, decorated with blasts of Hammond organ, with flares of punk and psychedelia woven into the mix. Despite wearing their influences on their sleeves, Trolley makes modern music, casting fresh new tunes in the mold of classic forms.

At 13 tracks and 42 minutes, Carnival is a tight, hard-charging set that’s fairly evenly split among the three singer-songwriters.

Perotto’s four cuts lean into the psychedelia component of Trolley’s sound. On the title track, driving guitars still leave room for swirling space-outs, while “Shiny Car” features psychedelic flair, abundant drive and late-Beatles vocals in equal measure. Later on, “Starlight” offers a brighter, rather sing-songy plea for the object of Perotto’s affections to dump her guy, while “The Face You’ve Brazened” swerves from dream into nightmare.

Hackbarth’s affection for Elvis Costello comes to the fore on “Radio Silence,” a headlong number about the agony of getting ghosted by someone you still care about. His “First Day Of Your Life,” by contrast, is all early rock guitars-and-harmonies sweetness.

Wall’s numbers tend to pump up the punk and New Wave elements of Trolley’s sound, especially the Costello-flavored drive of “Do It For The Girl” and the early-Clash fever of “Steppin’ Up.” On the flip side, “Father Time (Will Take)” finds Wall delivering a chiming, upbeat weeper about how time takes everything away, even love, and “I’ll Never Tell” shares Hackbarth’s affection for early rock guitars-and-harmonies.

A trio of album highlights are co-written by Hackbarth and Wall. “As Long As I Can Find You” is an upbeat, pushing love song featuring unison vocals on the chorus and guest Betty Strigens joining in on vocals. “Leaving You Behind” features a pushing beat and abundant attitude; it’s tight, short, and sweet. Finally, they close out the album in fine form with “Since The Drugs Wore Off,” a strummy number with guitar counterpointed by Hammond that feels both sad and celebratory as they sign off with these lines: “You can’t feel nothing since the drugs wore off / Haunted by the loss / It’s not the same since they disappeared / Living here.”

Five different drummers provide the steady backbeats behind the trio, with Jon Phillip featured on eight of the 13 tracks. Other featured guests include Nicholas Berg (keys) and Andrew Eshbaugh (trumpet), who each bring added dimension to the music.

In the end, A Carnival Of Grey & White feels like the most stirring eulogy you could imagine for the Perotto-Wall-Hackbarth team, a set of well-crafted, unapologetically retro tunes played with genuine fire and commitment. Whatever the future may hold, these three singer-songwriters seized the moment while the moment was there.

Rating: B+

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