With some unusual form of synchronicity, Waiheke Island’s blues/country unit Aaron Carpenter and the Revelators pleasingly ended up in my CD player on the morning of its release. Stylistically there is much blues as there is country, folk and roots, the four track EP a good representation of the band’s musical vision. Carpenter’s canny vocal phrasing and the serene backing vocals carry the listener through a storyline of heartbreak, isolation and rebellion. The opening guitar line hints of Tom Petty’s Mary Jane’s Last Dance but soon grows into so much more. Stranger is a reflective ballad of a lonely soul featuring some smooth rhythm guitar playing. Carpenter knows how to deliver a hook in a chorus, as evidenced in The Hardest Thing. The EP’s wildcard is closing track Pony that hints more at psychobilly. Each track has great momentum and collectively this proves a tidy package of well-arranged songs.