A few more song from Jarrod Gorbel have been released today as an EP entitled Bruises From Your Bad Dreams. A couple new versions of previously released songs, a duet with Nicole Atkins, and a couple new tunes make up this five song, 20 minute effort.

The first track on the album named “Desperate hands” is an up tempo, fuller textured version of a song he released as a demo with the Ten Years Older EP. The demo version of the song showed some promise, and while the new recording is certainly a step up, I feel it falls short of the songs full potential. I am supposing that a third release of it won’t be happening, so this may be all we get for that track.

“Mother / Father” is the second track, and the first new song we’ve heard from Gorbel since his full length release The Devil’s Made A New Friend. Absolutely a beautiful song, and incredibly reminiscent of his more lightly produced and textured early recordings as The Honorary Title. This is the highlight of the EP for me, it helps that it’s one of the three new songs.

The third track which he released a stream of a week ago is the duet with Nicole Atkins named “Miserable Without You”. In his own words, “The song title says it all: 'I'm miserable without you. You're better off without me.' We both realize these opposing opinions simultaneously. Who better to interpret the female part in the song than Nicole Atkins? I had her sing in one of my videos leading up to the release of my solo album 'Devil's Made a New Friend.' I knew her voice would be perfect. I've lived in New York my whole life and a supreme gesture of affection for myself would be to leave it behind.”

The next song, “Snow Cruncher” is a vocal driven track, with a simple acoustic guitar for support. Unlike the final track, an acoustic version of “I’ll Do Better”, I think this song falls short again of its potential. For a five minute song, it doesn’t really seem to go anywhere.

“I’ll Do Better” closes out the EP perfectly. I’m so glad he did an acoustic version of this song, it creates a lonelier atmosphere to pair with the message. There is a small string part that is played in the full band version and carried over to this song which I think it could have done without, but it’s not a deal breaker.

The movement of this EP makes it feel slightly rushed in my opinion. The production is professional but simple, and this release date seemed to be shortly promoted. I’m hoping his intention was for this EP to act as a hold over while we wait for another full length.