Talk about going full circle.

After splitting up for six months, the members of Ames band The Envy Corps reunited last fall with a unified goal of putting their music before their differences. Since then, they have seen their project go from its potentially fatal end to notable success on the college radio charts.

The band released its first LP, “Soviet Reunion,” on Feb. 3, which debuted at No. 107 on the College Music Journal Top 200 chart three weeks ago, and continues to climb. Currently, the album is at No. 63.

Guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist Luke Pettipoole said quality and commitment to the music is what brought the band back together after the rift. Both he and guitarist and keyboardist David Yoshimura, senior in English, along with drummer Derek Powers and bassist Peter Bovenmyer, tried playing with other people, but there was a connection missing.

“The whole time we were apart, we were like, ‘Man we don’t miss it,’ but we missed it terribly,” Bovenmyer said.

Pettipoole said the group finally realized the music was bigger than differences.

“I think before we split, some us were kind of like, ‘Oh, this is just a side thing.'” Pettipoole said. “But when we got back together, we were all very convinced that we’re not just doing this for fun. We really want to do this and take the band as far as it can go.”

Charting on College Music Journal three weeks ago was a major step and a huge relief for the band, Pettipoole said. He said the band worked with Jesse Stensby and Jerry Steller of Vitriol Radio Promotions in Saint Paul, Minn, to release the album.

“We worked with them, and they compiled a list of stations to send our album to. Then they e-mail us and let us know how our song’s doing,” Pettipoole said. “I wasn’t really in a celebratory mood; our goal was to crack the 100, so I was more relieved. We’ll celebrate if we make the top 50, but we jumped 20 spots to 87 in a week, so we’re pretty happy.”

Pettipoole said quality was one of the group’s top priorities. He said there were several times in the studio when they redid things that were technically good but didn’t sound how he knew they could.

“If you don’t spend the extra time to put the needed effort into an album, people can tell the difference. They listen to it and the response is ‘Eh, it’s not too bad,'” Bovenmyer said. “But it doesn’t have any staying power; it doesn’t hit you anywhere. It just sounds nice, but it’s not going to be listened to every time you’re in a certain mood.”

Three of the four band members have been friends since elementary school. Pettipoole said this has made playing together now much easier, since they already know each other’s quirks. Pettipoole and Bovenmyer say it was back when they were young, dreaming about having a band, that they came up with the name Envy Corps.

“It was just two words that sounded good together,” Bovenmyer said. “There’s really no meaning behind it.”

Pettipoole said the group thought about changing its name once because it often gets pronounced Envy Corpse. However, the band members say the one thing that sets them apart from other bands in central Iowa is their sound, something they hope will help them in their career.

“A lot of bands are just so hardcore, you have to pretty much fit or you feel you don’t belong,” Pettipoole said. “We have so many different people show up at shows and say they appreciated and enjoyed it. More than anything, our music has a quality of ownership — it gives you, the listener, the ability to make the music your own.”