Soft Company

The most impressive thing about Soft Company’s self-titled debut EP is its versatility: It runs the gamut from chugging indie rock to ’60s girl-group pop, New Wave and ’70s soul. Leader Missy Thangs, who moonlights as a keyboardist in The Love Language, possesses a sweet coo reminiscent of a young Marianne Faithfull. It’s at turns brash, coquettish, sultry and trilling, leading the quintet with power and pizazz.

The EP’s highlight is “Stark & Jesperson,” a boisterous two-minute pop song that manages to invoke a whole bevy of influences from Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight” to Fleetwood Mac’s soft rock, from jazzy bossa nova to the baroque British Invasion pop of the Zombies. It’s a real tour de force, all the more impressive for its ability to pack it into 120 seconds.

At other points, Thangs pouts, pads and claws before rubbing up against your leg on the torchy pop of “You Miss Me.” On “Easy Street,” she sounds like a jangle pop take on Blondie, but she bends the steaming backbeat of “Come Now (Stop It)” into an angelic appeal for a moment’s peace. Many of the songs feature a plaintive choir worthy of the Mormon Tabernacle, thanks to wonderful use of background voices and overdubs. They pan, harmonizing with and echoing Thangs’ own vocal lines in inventive ways that suggest The Dirty Projectors.

Thangs is backed by a crack crew of Triangle ringers able to roll with her eclectic, style-mashing tastes. Soft Company’s first EP was such an auspicious debut it’s a little disappointing that they’ve yet to follow-up on it. Hopefully a series of shows this summer before Hopscotch is a sign the creative fire’s being stoked for an encore. —Chris Parker