I’ve had it for awhile, but unfortunately due to the schedule I’ve been keeping as of late, didn’t get around to working on this for awhile, but yay to a quiet weekend, as I can finally share with you some newer music by one of my favorite local acts, Mission Zero!

Just in time for their April tour, they completed (with days to spare, David Keith told me) their latest EP, “Sky Candy,” which merges four previously-released singles (many written about here in the past: “When the Morning Comes,” “Disappear,” “Humans” and “12345678!“) with three new tracks: The eponymous “Sky Candy,” “the Stickers song” and “Drinking Through Our Roots.” The majority of these are very tightly-written pop tracks; more than half the songs on the EP clock in at less than three minutes each.

Talking with brother and sister Chenot and David, they had their own favorites, but sharing with a few co-workers right after I picked it up at a live show at The Trash Bar in Brooklyn, the song we all unanimously picked as our favorite was “the Stickers song,” which has all sorts of things going for it. It’s a nice pop confection with beautiful lead vocals by Chenot; the synths invoke a laid-back 80s vibe, and David’s vocals are more prominent here than normal, singing to his person of interest quite nicely. His drumming is perfect, as always, and the end result is one of my favorite pop tracks of the year to date (and the competition’s been pretty fierce).

The other two new tracks go in different directions, showing a duo that’s not content to crank out facsimiles of their previous strengths, instead experimenting and leading to rich and fruitful results. “Sky Candy” is more stripped down and slows the beat down a bit, but has a fun late-night vibe to it.

Meanwhile, “Drinking Through Our Roots” puts heavier guitar out there than most of the new tracks, and the “robots” electronic atmosphere that punctuates most of their music makes a more prominent appearance. Once you hit the chorus, it propels into one of the more infectious choruses they’ve done: Straightforward, easy to sing along, and catchy as hell.

I’m very much enjoying the new round of music, along with their previous output; I now hold the distinction of being the person listed on Last.fm as listening to Mission Zero “a lot”:

I shot video of the show I caught in April, which I hope to feature a bit here in the coming weeks; they’ve got another tour that’s with some dates already posted for mid-to-late July, so if you missed them last time around another chance is coming! They’ll be hitting some new spots this go-around, so take advantage of it if you can.