After the universally acclaimed Winged Life appeared last year, Shearwater had intimated that a modest change was afoot. And so it happened, yet without sacrificing the intimate American folk qualities that have come to define this Texas outfit. Thieves, the newest EP, takes the broader instrumental palette of the full-length and expands upon it with poetry and grace, resulting in a seventeen-minute follow-up with more scope and emotive force than the much longer album it succeeds.

Will Sheff has mastered the dynamics of his perpetually quavering voice, as he demonstrates on the beautiful, aching "You're the Coliseum," while Jonathan Meiburg taps into a range that he has not fully demonstrated before - viz. the opener "I Can't Wait," on which the singer transitions from a sung whisper to a cathartic bellow. Then again, they have the benefit of superb lyrics to get behind. These are some of the band's best to date (though it's hard to forget the perfection of "Mulholland"): Minimalist vignettes that are nevertheless powerful and evocative.

" Mountain Laurel" revives the leading banjo of the Winged Life standout, "Whipping Boy," although it soon gives way to Thor Harris' pounding martial drumbeat. Here, too, Meiburg puts his pipes to the test. The cheerful irony of the fifth and final track, "Near a Garden," partially obscures the fact that it's a prolonged meditation on transience, futility and death, Shearwater's material of choice.

Wholly satisfying, expertly crafted, Thieves belies its compact format and ought to further establish Shearwater as one of the most promising bands in operation today. Each one of their discs has outdone the last, and this EP is no exception. – Eric J. Iannelli