Classic example of classic rock

Anytime I’m in a bar that has one of those digital jukeboxes, there’s one song I always put on: Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.” It’s become a tradition, and I never tire of hearing it.

Boston, which has been active since 1976, is the kind of band that jukeboxes were made for: Their sound, thick with guitars and stacked high with harmonies, is immediately recognizable, and they’re one of those groups that embody the basic fundamentals of classic rock.

Their self-titled debut is still one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, and each of its eight tracks are played so frequently on oldies stations that it may as well be a greatest hits compilation. Guitarist Tom Scholz, the brainchild behind the band, is a famous rock perfectionist, producing every song in his home studio and tweaking them over and over until they meet his exact specifications.

Boston started recording its latest album, 2013’s “Life, Love and Hope,” way back in 2002 – it even includes some vocal work by the band’s original lead singer Brad Delp, who died in ’07. Gary Pihl, one of the band’s current guitarists, says they worked on the record in piecemeal fashion in between tour stops for the past decade.

“It’s very gratifying to have it all done and on a CD, and there it is, all finished,” Pihl said of the album. “It had been a long process in the making. Tom says it really took him 11 years to make this last album. We did a lot of touring in between, and it’s a long process of putting songs together. So it wasn’t 11 years straight in the studio, but 11 years since the last album.”

Scholz is the only founding member still with the group, though Pihl has been playing with Boston since the mid-’80s: He had previously toured with Sammy Hagar as an opening act for Boston in the ’70s, and he was invited to join Boston in ’85 when Hagar left for Van Halen.

“Tom, of course, is the main songwriter,” Pihl said, “and he takes as long as he needs to work it out and try different instruments, bring in different singers to try and sing it. Every once in awhile, he’ll collaborate with one of us in the band or with an outside writer, so it’s a little bit of everything, but Tom is 95 percent there as the songwriter.”

Listening to “Life, Love and Hope” is sometimes a disorienting experience: It’s initially strange to hear the traditional Boston sound without Delp’s distinctive vocals (he appears on four of the album’s tracks), but whenever the band hits a chorus and Scholz’s guitar arrangements soar by, it’s like being transported back to the late ’70s.

“Certainly the band has evolved over the years, but I think the new songs sound like Boston,” Pihl said. “That’s the main thing, right? Whether we were trying to or not, they sound like Boston. As we’ve played them here in concert, we get a good response, people seem to like them. That’s all you can ask for – that people like the sound we’re making.”

It might be another decade or so before you can get your hands on a new Boston LP – over the course of 38 years, they’ve put out just six studio albums – but they continue to be a constant presence on the touring circuit.

“People ask us, ‘Do you get tired of playing the same songs night after night?’ ” Pihl said, “and my answer is usually, ‘Well, I would, if we just had to do this in our basement.’ But you’re out on stage, and you look out into the audience and people are smiling and singing along, and you’re lost in the moment. We always look forward to that.”