S. Carey: Supermoon EP

“The idea was to strip the song down to its core and hear that way,” Sean Carey recently wrote on his blog in regards to his new Supermoon EP, which was impressively recorded entirely over the weekend of its namesake lunar event last August. With one new song and one cover, the other two-thirds of the EP consists of alternative versions of two tracks from S. Carey’s previous albums. It is not a slight to suggest that what made last year’s Range of Light really glow was not the hooks — though there were more than enough — but the bright instrumental beds, warm with well-measured layering.

On these recreations of “Fire-scene” and “Neverending Fountain” there is an igloo-like coziness, but the originals weren’t lacking their own sense of intimacy. Michael Noyce’s work with the strings pairs well with Carey’s hushed voice and piano (including on their faithful walk through Radiohead’s “Bulletproof (I Wish I Was)”), and the results are never short of lovely, but the chosen limitations do sometimes lead to less lasting impressions than those left by their more fleshed-out counterparts.