The general consensus is that Robert Alfons has lightened up considerably on Joyland, the second album from the Toronto synth-pop project known as Trust. When we first heard from the singer-programmer on the 2012 debut TRST, his songs weren’t the kind that get filed under “feel-good hits of the summer”; the album was marked by cold coffin-black vocals and coolly detached synths.

What comes through on Joyland—a record that more than lives up to its name—is that Alfons actually seems to be having fun. Things get off to a gorgeous start with the shimmering “Slightly Floating”, with highlights including Trust travelling back to ’80s Berlin for the lush dark-waver “Icabod” and unleashing his inner soul sister for the digitally manipulated “Rescue, Mister”.

Reached at an Atlanta tour stop, the man behind Trust acknowledges that Joyland has a different vibe than TRST. Don’t go thinking that he’s become a different person, though. With a wry laugh, Alfons suggests he is no danger of turning into someone who bounds out of bed thinking every day is a glorious blessing.

“I’m a melancholy person—always, every day,” he reveals. “I’m really hard on myself, really tough. Making music is sort of the thing that keeps me sane. That and performing are what keep things going for me.”

Luckily for Alfons, things couldn’t be going better.

“We are a week into this tour now, and we’ve had really, really excellent shows, so I can’t really complain about much,” he offers. “People have been saying really nice things about the new record while I’ve been meeting them along the way, and that means a lot to me.”

The reaction to Trust’s return to the road might have everything to do with Alfons having made the kind of record you don’t need to be doped up on Paxil to love. Get ready, for example, to fall hard for “Capitol”, which plays six degrees of separation with the Orb, the Chemical Brothers, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And flash back to a time you can’t remember with the glitter-spackled acid-house majesty of “Peer Pressure”.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the creative process for Joyland differed from that for TRST, with Alfons now working as a solo artist. In the beginning, Trust had him collaborating with drummer Maya Postepski of Austra. With Postepski having departed to concentrate on Austra, Alfons was free to take the songs in whatever directions he pleased, eventually realizing, as he listened to the completed Joyland, that he had changed gears.

“There’s definitely a warmness and a more inviting feel to it,” he says. “The record is always changing for me. When I finished it, my perception of what I’d done was very different from what it is now. And I’m sure that I’ll look at it differently a year from now. What’s funny was that I really thought that I was making a pop record where a lot of my pop influences came out. Because of that, I thought that I was going to get slagged for being too accessible or something.”

On the contrary, no one is complaining.

“Looking out at the audiences, it’s like everyone is having a good time,” Alfons says. “People are dancing and getting lost in their own little worlds in a way that’s really enthusiastic. They aren’t posing, and they aren’t worrying about looking cool, which makes for a really special experience. And the feeling is mutual.”

Trust plays Electric Owl on Tuesday (April 29).