Given its name, I suppose it’s not particularly surprising that Some Days are Darker produces music on the more gloomy side. In the hands of Phoenix-based, Detroit-raised musician Lear Mason, however, many of the smoky and bluesy songs found on the project’s debut album, Love+Truth, have a catchiness and pop sort of appeal, even on a track like “Take Me Anywhere,” which find Mason seeming to channel his inner Michael Gira on secondary vocal lines.

Frankly, I was pretty impressed with the excellent selection of tracks on this EP. The songs are gripping and nicely fleshed out, making the record seem to be something more than the usual singer/songwriter album.

Perhaps as good an introduction to the band as any is Mason’s moody take on the late Bill Withers’ classic tune “Ain’t No Sunshine,” the video for which is premiering below. About the track, Mason says: “”For me, covering a Bill Withers song is somewhat of a contradiction; soul meets the soulless, but in that dappled place between the darkness and the light is where I like to explore. Those uncertain areas. There’s no mistaking the certainty of the song—its power and simplicity. Bringing it into the Some Days Are Darker anthology creates somewhat of a rift, like something you might find on the cutting room floor of some forgotten David Lynch film.”

Take the trip with the video below and look for Love+Truth, out now on digital platforms via the Inferno Choir label.

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