Three albums into their duo project, Rachael & Vilray hit their stride with West of Broadway. 

With Lake Street Dive’s Price on co-lead vocals and the mononym guitarist, composer and velvet-voiced Vilray backed by a big band playing mid-20th-century jazz, Rachael & Vilray for the first time sound like a full-time gig rather than the side project it is. 

Spanning the sprightly humor of “Is it Jim?,” in which the narrator’s lover turns into a tortoise (rhymes with enormous and laborious) to the languid romance of “Closer,” whose long instrumental interlude of vibes and clarinet qualifies as a sonic sex scene, West of Broadway is as much a love letter to New York as to love itself. 

This is revealed in such songs as “My Key to Gramercy Park,” “Manhattan Serenade” and “Off Broadway,” on which funny man Stephen Colbert reveals himself a serious vocalist capable of harmonizing with these top-shelf singers. 

This is old-time music authentic enough to appeal to the Greatest Generation and refreshed in a way to appeal to those who listen in their footsteps.