Prom Date: Prom Date EP – CD Review

Recommended if you like: Neon Indian, Holy Ghost!, fast-forwarding to the good parts

Essential track: “Walking Dead”

Prom Date’s previous release, 2010’s six-track Clock Out, made a great case as one of the best local albums that year. It packed strings, French horns and other orchestral instruments in with synthesizers, guitars and drums for an ambitious, dynamic pop sound. Simply, if you haven’t listened to the poppy dance fest that is Clock Out, you’re losing out.

On Prom Date’s new EP, the band returns with a high-energy three-track package that begs to be kept on repeat. More electronic and synth-heavy than the band’s previous release, Prom Date retains every ounce of pop and dance flair that made Clock Out so enjoyable. Beginning with the bizarrely tropics-infused “Walking Dead,” moving through sparkling funk on “Good Morning, Boyfriend,” and tying things together with the frantic storm “Riptide,” this short EP is a pleasing tease.

It’s easy to see the band is stretching out. This EP isn’t far-enough removed from Clock Out to declare a new direction, but these new tracks are distinctly divergent, with electronic loops and samples—some of which feel taciturn at points. The EP is solid, and evolution and change are always necessary, but it would be a shame to lose the emotional power Prom Date displayed two years ago simply for the sake of a new direction. promdatemusic.com