It's easy to overlook detail, both as a listener and an artist, but detail is what makes Nicholas Megalis shine, and it's what makes I Find It Sexy How You Mislead Me rise above being relegated to a cast-offs and demos EP. Fans need not worry: The tracks still showcase the same sneering vocals and cantankerous lyrics, edging along anger even as Megalis smiles around memorable melodies, but the dimension he manages to pull from what is mostly an acoustic release catches your attention—assuming you notice it. And that's sort of the point—you may not notice it, but the songs would suffer without the detail.

Megalis is clearly comfortable with his overt sound and persona (Who wouldn't be, after opening for Nine Inch Nails in Cleveland last year?), and this leaves him ample room to strip down his sound and also lurk in the background, playing with knobs and pushing buttons. "Monday 4:30 PM in Brooklyn" (New York, as the backing vocal adds) echoes with slide guitar and solitary piano notes sprinkled over driving acoustics, while "In Other Words..." layers swirling keyboards and babbling background vocals over a meditative intonation of the EP's title. You could say it's beautiful, but that wouldn't be fair, somehow. "Oh Yeah Sorry Sure It's Okay" even features hand claps—and that's all right. Megalis pulls it off.

Yet maybe the best part of I Find It Sexy How You Mislead Me is that you don't have to take our word for it: The damn thing is free (search for him at archive.org). Not picking it up would be stubborn, and not following it up by buying something else from Megalis would be just plain foolish.

Nicholas Megalis