★★★★☆

Tiny Little Houses are wasting no time making a name for themselves, and their debut EPYou Tore Out My Heartacts as but a teaser of what they can do.

This four-track introduction sets up the Melbourne four-piece as a band to watch.

You Tore Out My Heart relishes in the lo-fi indie/folk sounds of the ’90s spearheaded by Neutral Milk Hotel, but with a 2015 facelift. The production is cleaner, but still allows for atypical and noisy instrumentation, like at the end of ‘Every Man Knows His Plague; And You Are Mine’, as fuzzy guitars and detuned synths stretch out over the final moments.

Opening track ‘Soon We Won’t Exist’ sets the tone with a Neutral Milk Hotel-esque waltz through life, death and love. Some may find the vocal inflection too big of a hurdle to jump, but once you do so you are wrapped up in some lovely, soft-spoken melodies.

‘Easy’ features one of the strongest guitar lines of the year, written around a story of heartbreak at Luna Park.

You Tore Out My Heart is just enough for you to fall in love and start counting down the days until this band’s next release.

Tiny Little Houses’You Tore Out My Heartis released independently.

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