Nick Cox‘s pop sensibilities have never been a secret. From the harmonies and French pop halcyon days of Screaming Maldini, his previous band, to his current venture, Minimal Animal, he’s always had a knack for picking the right hook. One that will veer from your bog standard rock into fashionable pop music.

I thought that we’d be happy here is a short trip through a complicated pop landscape. A place many think is barren of ideas. But if you look beyond that well-spread lie (get off Twitter, please), you’ll see hills and hills of ornate music that beacons the old and the young to new vistas.

‘Happy here’ is the standout track in the ep. A brutal slice of elegant pop, it manages to include a saxophone stomping its head like a gadfly trying to break a window and somehow still surviving. It certainly survived that droll analogy. ‘Rise’ is a good opener, a thank you letter to someone, could be anyone, who was there in those worst of times.

And isn’t pop music something to get us through bad times? Pick any decade and there will always be a particular colour of pop being derided. minimal animal camouflages in current pop styles and lands a sweet collection of tunes.

Words: Sam J. Valdés López