Mini Dresses are sharing 4 new songs, a collection they’ve titled “Sad Eyes EP”. It’s a smoldering, teary-eyed set of tracks – the eighth addition to a discography that has focused on small batches of pastel-tinted, self-produced pop music. This latest installment feels the most developed from their previous songs – more ambitious and precise, maybe the most heartbreaking.

Mini Dresses strike me as a group with an aligned vision – they aren’t a band that’s interested in slick fills or quick guitar playing. They aren’t interested in a jarring song structure. Even distortion is difficult to find here. But these are not their goals! Mini Dresses writes minimal dream pop songs and aims to keep those songs as pure and postured as possible. Sad Eyes succeeds in maintaining a certain kind of pulse, one that moves forward as much as it is reigned in – that moves in the most natural way possible by finding some kind of core rhythm, a search for an element that is just spacious enough, the ultimate smoothness. This is their great ability and it is, in a way, athletic even if it’s not particularly energetic.

The kinds of sounds you’ll hear here? Rippling, chorused guitars. Quiet, still organs. Relaxed drum kits and ride cymbals. Lira’s transparent and feather-light vocal style, the central focus and, in my opinion, the true anchor and source of power – the part that the whole thing is built to support. “Fabric” could be my favorite song here, containing some of the grittiest moments on the record. Check out those drum sounds! Those whirly delays and crunched vocals!

This album sounds great on headphones. It’s bite sized. Coming in around 12 minutes at length. It’s catchy. It’s clear. It’ll warm you up. Listen here! Look forward to the full length!

Listen to “Fabric”