Imagine the pre-Islands band The Unicorns in all their glory; that album, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone. Now think of their triumphant return, matured a decade and now female-fronted. The songs are no longer bizarre and there’s been a complete turnaround when it comes to their accessibility to the general public. Imagine that, added with a newfound influence by, say, Fiery Furnaces, and you’ll have Social Studies. It’s somewhere in that general realm, with casio keyboards backed by bouncy pop bass – all of it, enjoyable.

Natalia Rogovin and Michael Jirkovsky, the key original members of Social Studies, are preparing to give us a new full-length (Wind-Up Wooden Heart) next year and as a teaser have released The Hourglass EP. Though called an EP, it’s really a single, featuring two tracks, “Time Bandit” and “We Choose Our Own Adventures”, both of which you can find below.

Social Studies: Time Bandit [mp3]

Social Studies: We Choose Our Own Adventures [mp3]