Misser, featuring Tim Landers of Transit and Brad Wiseman of This Time Next Year, decided to get in the studio earlier this year and record a follow-up to their 2012 ‘Every Day I Tell Myself Iām Going To Be A Better Person’ LP. The five track effort sort of lands halfway between TSSF and Transit in a way (and fans of either will find something to enjoy about the band’s sound), but ‘Distancing’ does much to land a bit further into Gaslight Anthem territory than either of them.
The EP itself lies on the short side – especially considering the band’s company on Rise Records – but it works in the band’s favour here considerably. There’s never a second where the EP drags and in a lot of ways its more engaging than the band’s debut (plus plenty of the new TSSF and Transit records if we’re being honest).
‘Goddamn, Salad Days’ is a high energy, pacey opener, and should keep even though the most impatient ears sticking around to see where the EP is headed. ‘Infared’ follows it, but it has the unfortunate fate of being followed by the clear highlight of the album in ‘Burn Out’.
‘Alone, Die’ and ‘Slow It Down Write It Out’ close things down, and it’s basically more of the same from here on in. Essentially, Misser have put together a rather brief but very enjoyable indie/punk rock EP, and it’s a fine precursor to the whatever they chose to move onto next. It might fail to capture imaginations in the grand scheme of things, but it will keep the band as something more than a distraction.
TOM AYLOTT