Essex Green

Brooklyn's Essex Green has followed up their debut full-length album with a five-song EP that continues their trip into the world of '60s folk pop. The five-member band are still keen to evenly divide songwriting and vocal duties, making the results as mixed as their previous effort. Although the songwriting is uniformly strong and melodies hook-filled, the songs themselves are hindered by rudimentary musicianship and the occasional off-key vocals. Two of the band members have great voices and should probably take over all of the vocal duties. "Fabulous Day" kicks things off with a great pop number with sweet harmonies and a hint of psychedelia while "Chester" veers into bubblegum territory. We get some Byrds-like country pop on "New Orleans," but they save the best for last with a grand psych organ number, "Bald," that mixes Jefferson Airplane with Buffalo Springfield.