I feel dirty, sullied, debased, degraded and all around icky. But let me start at the beginning.

I hate emo. I find emo bands to be pretentious, phony and narcissistically self-involved. However, I love chaotic hardcore (aka screamo) and one of my favorite representatives of that genre is the sadly demised Sleepytime Trio. When I found out that three-fourths of Sleepytime had regrouped as Bats and Mice, I ran around in circles whooping and cheering and generally getting on everyone’s nerves.

Bats and Mice, it turns out, play emo. Fuck!

But that’s not the worst of it. In spite of all my prejudices, I like Bats and Mice. The three songs on this EP combine a sparse melodic air with some unbelievably killer hooks, and I ended up singing them over and over in front of the same people who were already annoyed with me for the spazz-out recounted above. Thus, I now find myself alone. But that’s fine, because the interweaving vocals on this EP evoke a therapeutic melancholy better than any band since Three Mile Pilot. I could cover my ass and say this album is “dark pop,” but no, it’s emo, and I find myself quite enjoying it.

I need a shower.