The Small Cities

The Small Cities EP

(Common Cloud)

Record Review by Marcel Feldmar

A short little EP from this trio, and by short, I mean like 4 songs that add up to almost 20 minutes. The first piece drifts out slightly meandering and pushing a slightly alt.country slowness down some dusty highway, faint hints of American Music Club breaking against slight but very nice hints of bands like Lanterna or Scenic (drifting quietly in the backround of my mind, I’m sure). The vocals have aslight Neil Young drawl to them, but perhaps as filtered through some sort of slow Beach Boys lens. Then the dust clears and the speed picks up with the next song, a little more driving, but still holding that Americana dream.

“Fargo”, the second song, is one of thos simple songs that holds so much depth within it. It’s upbeat and happy sounding, but seems to twist a quiet melancholia in the background, and it just kind of gets you feeling good, but a little sad, and then the sadness pushes through into song # 3.

Minimalistic intro, that slowly twists out and into the open air. Something about this song (“Trust Me, I Am Not A Stalker”) just gets under my skin and crawls along with my pulse. It feels good. The beat is strong and steady, and the song is drenched in this slight sneakiness which goes along perfectly with the album title. The vocals float delicate but strong on top of the rhythm, perhaps a little Flaming Lipped, but not quite as psychedelic. Perhaps a little Kings of Leon, but without the Rock.

The last song, “I’m Gone” is soft and stretched out on a field of sorrow. I don’t want it to end like this, so sad, there needs to be something else, something I can hold on to and hope for… like a full length album?