4 out of 5

Label: Secretly Canadian

Producer: Swearing at Motorists?

What a tidy little EP.  SAM releases are usually front-loaded with some great, amazingly catchy rockers cut up by demo-y tracks, the latter half of the album delving into more acoustic territory with a requisite couple of toss-off tracks.  There aren’t years of albums to which to apply this template, but it mostly works for Doughman’s mail releases.  ‘Burnt’ might by Swearing’s best overall listen, as it incorporates all of the elements that make the duo/group effective and fun, but resequences things so that the whole experience is worth several go-rounds and limits the cast-offs to unobtrusive moments that don’t slow down the disc.  It ends on one of the groups best tracks; it’s just a shame there isn’t another similarly awesome track – some great ones, but nothing as gut-punchingly powerful as the closer – to rally the first seven songs.

The EP makes its unusual (for a SAM follower) presence known by opening with the quiet track – the lo-fi ‘Cuando nos Veramos’ actually avoids Doughman’s generally smirking relationship talk for some Simon Joyner-esque tape-hiss guitar pluckings and sad musings, extending into full-song length at over three minutes.  It further surprises by experimenting with sonics – changing the tempo (unusual for Doughman) and bringing in some feedback toward song’s end that makes the song a highlight for how this so well juxtaposes the quiet that came before.  ‘Lullaby Ascending’ warms us up with a rockin’ guitar riff that unfortunately turns out to just be an instrumental, but it leads into the great ‘Transcontinental (Drunk Again)’ that almost matches the energy of the final track but cuts out at just over a minute before it can work up enough steam.  The toss-off track is here smartly limited to a super brief electro-strumental – ‘Send Weed’ – and then the notable ‘The the Calvary Cross’, which, as with ‘Veramos’, expands upon the SAM style with some extra dimensions beyond guitar, bass and drums.  It also shows some learned restraint from Doughman, finding a middle ground between quiet and loud, but the track again cuts short before it can really sell us.  Another brief instrumental, and then yet another surprise with ‘Borrowed Sorrow,’ which we’re ready for it to be a joke track, since it echoes the electronic beat from ‘Weed,’ but it turns into a spooky minute of cavernous vocals and sadness expressed in its scant lines.

And then that awesome end track, ‘Running Out (of Things to Say),’ which funnels all of the awesome pieces of Swearing at Motorists down to a full 3.5 minute track.  The harmonies, the pause and then break into a louder, layered section, all down to the fade out, are tried and true SAM, but its rare that Doughman holds this material until the end of the album so it packs a nice wallop.

‘Burnt’ shows a truly impressive range for the group that makes us hope they’ll one day turn out an album that capitalizes on some of the experiments here.  It’s a shame this was a ‘limited’ EP, because it shows more awareness of sequencing and scope than most of the albums, and would make an easy introduction to the band to get people hooked.  For seasoned listeners, there’s only one or two golden tracks, perhaps, but the surprises mixed into the 14-some minutes make it absolutely worth the money to purchase and the time (and time again, for sure) to listen.