Altered Zones

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Transparent brought Georgia-based Soft Powers to our attention back at the start of August with the beautifully plaintive ballad "Mary Never Sings Our Songs." Mary sounds like a drag-- we sang their song enough last month to slip it onto the first edition of our monthly mix series. And now that song is the closing track to the trio's debut EP, Bad Pop, which is packed tight with funk-charged, falsetto-infused jams that sorta sound like Ariel Pink backed by a battery-powered Phoenix. They've made it available for free download at their Bandcamp.

MP3: Soft Powers: "Mary Never Sings Our Songs"

As varied as Bad Pop is, the gorgeous "Mary" sounds oddly out of place, but it also makes sense because Soft Powers are musically all over the map: The day after Bad Pop dropped, the group released a three-song shoegaze-inspired EP titled Tim Durmah, and now they're on a different kick entirely, with the great new psych-pop single "It's Like a Dream", which might be our favorite track by them yet.