By Brett Milano

They’re called the Smoking Popes, and they’re from Chicago. And yes, they’re aware that the coincidence is too perfect for words. “I think all of us in the band are excited to welcome our new member, Pope Leo,” singer Josh Caterer said this week. “And we’re delighted to have him joining us on all of our tour dates through the rest of the year. He’ll be singing backup, playing a bit of accordion and pronouncing papal blessings to the audience at all our shows.”

A longtime favorite in the punk/pop world, the Smoking Popes (which also include Caterer’s two brothers, bassist Matt and guitarist Eli, plus drummer Mike Felumlee) play Somerville Armory May 22. They’re promoting “Lovely Stuff,” their first studio album in seven years, which is full of the anthemic hooks they’re known for. And since the album opens with “Golden Moment” and closes with a non-joke cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” it hardly lacks for positivity.

“People are looking for a little bit of hope nowadays, with a constant flood of discouraging news coming at us every day,” Caterer says. “‘Golden Moment’ was just inspired by the kind of transcendent moment that a good show can be, and the way there’s a beautiful exchange of energy between an audience and a performer. We just wanted to capture a little of that, in the form of a song.” In fact the band wrote and released an angry political song, “Allegiance” in the wake of the last election, but he says it didn’t fit the vibe of this album.

Caterer may be the only frontman in punk who names his favorite singer as Judy Garland. After flirting with the idea for years, the Popes covered “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as the new album’s finale. “We’ve done show tunes in the past, but I’ve been so intimidated on that one because she’s pretty much the greatest singer of all time and I didn’t want to step into the ring with her. But it seemed like a perfect fit for this album, since it’s about the longing for transcendent beauty and that idea is baked into the song.”

Caterer has long been pegged as a crooner in a punk band. “Ever since ‘Need You Around’ became a hit in the ‘90s people started talking about how we sounded like Frank Sinatra in a punk band, and that’s the bull’s eye that we always try to go for. I grew up listening to a variety of things, definitely punk but also blues and country, show tunes and jazz crooners. I think it’s inevitable that we’d try to blend some of these things together in a musical cocktail of sorts.”

Pope jokes aside, Caterer embraced Christianity in 1998. His faith prompted him to leave the band for a time, and to return with a different attitude. “I think the sense of hope that’s present on this album isn’t coming from thin air, it’s coming from this faith that has a grounding effect on my whole life. And that influences my perspective on everything I do. When I became Christian it upended my life because I wasn’t raised that way, and it didn’t seem compatible with being a professional rock musician at that time. But it turned out that I needed a few years to recalibrate and get established on my new path, so I could come back to the Popes as a new and improved version of myself.”