Stornoway - You Don't Know Anything EP (2013)

Review by James Christopher Monger
Released in 2013, Tales from Terra Firma found English pop confectioners Stornoway expanding on their already ample blend of Merseybeat-informed indie pop and overcast, pastoral folk by integrating elements of psych-tinged art rock into the mix. Arriving just several months later, the six-track EP You Don't Know Anything goes even further in charting the Oxford-based quartet's journey from doe-eyed romantics to unpredictable, quirk-pop spell-casters, offering up a sextet of songs that didn't quite fit in with the nine that found permanence on their sophomore outing. Richly detailed and delivered with gusto, kaleidoscopic mini-epics like "When You Touch Down from Outer Space," a glitchy wonder of shimmering synths and soaring group vocals, the atmospheric, almost vaudevillian "Tumbling Bay," and the beefy, Steeleye Span-meets-MGMT rocker "The Sixth Wave" are spilling over with ideas, and would probably have fit right in on Terra Firma's ambitious back end, while the amiable title cut, a breezy two-chord shuffle that should please fans of the band's hook-filled debut, delivers the EP's most instantly gratifying moments of pop acumen.