chrismolloyWith a shrug of the shoulders and a “don’t spend it all in one shop” Chris Molloy announced the release of his EP ‘Old Songs and Habits’ on his Facebook page, very nonchalantly. He has a ton of stuff coming out in 2014 so may as well get this one out there, he tells us. This kind of unconcerned lack of pretentiousness suits Chris Molloy and his music, but of the five tracks featured on this eclectic collection only two could be said to abide by that ethos.

The opening track answers to the name There’s Not A Thing I Would Not Do For You and its sweet simplicity puts you in mind of “it’s easy to fall in love with you” from Little Green Cars’ The John Wayne before they re-recorded it and robbed it of its minimalist brilliance. Molloy’s song has the same problem in that it should be a more simple piece, as the lyrics here are fairly generic love song lyrics, as they are on three of the other songs. But musically, its carnival waltz and carousel slide-guitar are gloriously simple and endearing, and the bursting sugar-rush that comes when he sings the track’s title doesn’t just do volatile and energetic, it feels it.

Track two, I Won’t Go Too Far, is a run-of-the-mill piano ballad, and is followed by Do You Know My Name which plays exactly into Molloy’s weaknesses. The opening riff played on piano then in tandem with electric guitar doesn’t sound like anything; they’re just notes for the sake of playing notes. It’s so middle-of-the-road that it doesn’t even sound like the same artist who composed that great opening track. It’s one of those ’80s power-ballad U2 rip-offs that culminates in a high squealy guitar solo in which you can almost see the face-pulling the guitarist is making to show how into the song he is.

So just as you’re doubting the musical proficiency of the EP, scratching your head over the loss of direction – like you were walking a nice promenade but suddenly ended up in the “rough part of town”, clutching your shitty phone in your pocket in case some Gollum-like junkies rise up out of the sewer grating and snatch it out of your pocket before you’ve had a chance to scream for help – Release Me Freely starts to play. Once more, we’re back in the safety of the nice middle-class part of the city, enjoying the tax-funded cleanness of the quiet street. It’s a bit of a Crosby, Stills & Nash number with its simple acoustic guitar, but it feels genuine, unlike the track that came before, and the beautiful folky melodies contain the simple repetitiveness that have made that genre’s optimistic sadness so comforting and transcendent for its adherents.

Closing track Newfoundland (which features a mysterious parenthetical the day Keith left the band) is a piano number that hits a certain grave tone and has some nice production value with strings and a heavy bass organ, but it’s a bit too melancholy to take seriously. Nonetheless, it is a reason to be in favour of the idea that Chris Molloy will be releasing a bunch of music in 2014. We know the creative talent’s there, and if he stays going in the right direction then a full collection of great songs is a serious possibility.