You’d think that people would’ve had enough of silly love songs. I looked around the Leader Bank Pavilion and I saw it wasn’t so.

On Thursday night, on the huge Pavilion stage, Yacht Rock Revue sold nostalgia, escapism, the notion that musical chops matter, and a post-modernist take on popular music. But mostly, like Paul McCartney before them, the aviator-sporting middle aged guys in YRR sold silly love songs. Or at least re-sold them.

An Atlanta-born tribute to ’70s AM Gold and ’80s Top 40, YRR went mainstream on the back of years of touring – the band plays the Cape Cod Melody Tent Wednesday and Thursday before returning to the Pavilion on Friday. Too good to remain purely a cover band, YRR made an album of originals in 2020 – the LP, “Hot Dads in Tight Jeans,” is a tasty cocktail of soft rock, indie pop, sparkling disco and glitchy electronica. The Revue’s covers and originals both work because they take the music (if not themselves) seriously.

And yes, you can take Looking Glass’s “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” seriously.

When the Beatles went from the heartfelt “Love Me Do” to the sardonic “Glass Onion,” they lost some people. Those people – alienated by the weirdness and self-indulgence of late ’60s and early ’70s – found a home in the old-school songcraft and sincerity of yacht rock’s love songs. Here’s where Yacht Rock Revue comes in.

Live, the band threads an almost impossible gap. The love songs are sweet, the rock songs are rocking, the cheek is packed with tongue, and yet the catalog is done reverently not ironically. Yacht rock is deemed a guilty pleasure, but it is enjoyed earnestly. (Can anything actually be enjoyed ironically? I doubt it.)

So Yacht Rock delivers earnest infatuation (Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’s Baby”), earnest romance (Rupert Holmes’ “Escape”), and earnest longing (the aforementioned Brandy). The songs connect because they are all little masterpieces of pop. And because the band is smoking hot.

The five of the members who took lead vocals are all great – Kourtney Jackson can do Sade with the required smooth gloss and YRR founder Nick Niespodziani’s talent for channeling so many (Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, even David Lee Roth) is endlessly impressive. Guitar ace and Berklee grad Mark Dannells can riff on Toto and rearrange Steely Dan leads. The whole band needs to be excellent because, beyond sincere lyrics, yacht rock depends on players having profound skills.

When YRR does Toto’s “Rosanna,” Niespodziani needs to sell the impassioned vocals, the “I didn’t know that a girl like you could make me feel so sad.” But equally importantly, the band needs to fill out an epic tune that dips into jazz, funk, blues, heavy metal and prog rock. YRR can do this, plus do the bass line in “Smooth Operator,” the harmonies of “Dancing Queen,” and complex chords of “Peg.”

YRR is a great time. It’s a time for dressing up in captain’s hats, booging to the Doobie Brothers, getting sloppy and silly, even when – especially when – the silliness extends to those cheesy-but-honest love songs.

For tickets and details, visit yachtrockrevue.com

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