You’re Gomez. You’ve made two excellent, great-selling albums. You’ve won a Brit Award. You’re the music critics’ darlings. You’ve toured the States twice. You’ve even gotten one of your songs into the movie that won Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. So now what do you do? Release an EP.

This import-only, five-song EP is the first in a series of two that are to be released in lieu of a new album. And you can believe these songs are every bit as good as anything on a full-length record.

Machismo is a departure from Gomez’s 1999 album Liquid Skin. It offers a wide variety of musical styles on a five-song release, clocking in at just under 27 minutes. But it’s got that something you can’t quite figure out. It’s that undefinable, yet unmistakable thing that puts Gomez above the rest.

The title track is a dance song with samples taken from a television special by magician David Blaine. (Remember that guy who buried himself in a glass coffin for a week?) The song includes one of the band’s most enigmatic verses: “He don’t do what from, and that ain’t right.”

“Touchin’ Up” is an example of what we’ve come to expect from a Gomez ballad—slow, folky guitars with strings from the London Session Orchestra. But Ben Ottewell, one of the band’s three vocalists, makes this one beautiful with his powerful, bluesy voice. The song plays like the sequel to “We Haven’t Turned Around” from Liquid Skin.

The last track, “The Dajon Song,” is named for unofficial band member Dajon Everett. This psychedelic slow jam stretches over 13 and a half minutes.

It’s a wonder a band who has become this popular can remain this prolific without the quality of the music taking a dive. And with this EP, it seems that there is no style of music that Gomez can’t make their own. The band has passed the test. Give them another trophy!