sIngs

If 2010 is the year that all of Houston's indie dreams seep to the surface, add sIngs's new EP Hells to the already heady list of upcoming releases that either will see or already have seen the light of day this year. sIngs's Brett Taylor weaves creepy and magical beds of grungey hymns, sounding like an Arcade Fire bedroom project on the EP's second track, "Bonely," and doing his best Stephen Malkmus take on "Don't Regret the Thing You Done." On "House," Taylor gets dark and flickering, singing a dirge to family death and what happens to the people who get left behind. Hells is a naked album that manages not to sound too vulnerable and doesn't confuse openness with weakness. Taylor splays everything out for both Houston and the world to see, and the EP sounds all the better for it.