Imagine the melodic sense and spare instrumental style of My Aim Is True Elvis Costello, only sung with Costello's bite replaced by a resigned, more melodic Bernard Sumner, and nassumingly serving up lines like "love will tear us a new one." Or a Lloyd Cole-esque number with lyrics about laundry and buildings, or an arching, lovely half-speed chorus melody balanced against a punchier, quicker verse punctuated by fuzz bass. Or the best (only?) use of autoharp in rock since Roky Erickson. The highlight here is "Silver Bootstraps," which marries pointed wit with a Motown-via-the-Jam beat: "Where does money come from, Daddy? / Tell me that it's hard work, Daddy / Just don't tell me whose work, Daddy..." Clyde Federal (a band, not a person) packs a lot of potential into this short, fifteen-minute EP.