Against All Opps is a model village of melody; a short, selective hub built primarily on the sort of wry earworms that wriggle in and out of convention. Despite their songs trotting on an exemplary ‘point A to point B’ basis, The Creepy Jingles scratch their own itch of finding new, varying ways of grabbing attention, through melody, through language, through quirk, on a stellar mini album.

Jocelyn Nixon’s waving vocal range, and menacingly out-there personality, provides original melodies that dance all over I Don’t Need a Thing From You, purposed by simple, drilling lyricism that prefaces most soundbites with the words “you wanna” – “you wanna clear your conscience” / “you wanna play your last card”. It’s a sort of direct simplicity that matches the band’s urgency.

If you blink, you’ll miss something – in this case your ears will miss something, should your ears…blink? You Don’t Trend commands all ears; one ear on a textbook vocal that grooves from a ii chord to a V, one on flashing synthesisers that form melody even in the background, and your third ear – claimed specifically for this listening experience – on lyrics for which ‘choice language’ could never be a term of hyperbole. There is mention of “thotties”, “nepo babies”, and respectable usage of the word “cunty”. There is also a guitar line quite reminiscent of And Your Bird Can Sing.

Exhibit B of blink/miss is Throw Me in Some Rice, which runs on darkly enchanted vocal melodies whilst a flute glides through the woods in a hunt for attention. The Jingles are pretty darn good at using an extracurricular instrument to do some of their melodic bidding; see the lit-up synth of Funhouse Mirror.

But as Nu Fables states, sometimes all you need is a great melody, and finding one on Against All Opps is like finding a needle in a needlestack. This short but unrushed project by The Creepy Jingles is here to open you up to a new world of melody. Big things can come in tiny frames.

Best track – I Don’t Need a Thing From You.

Rating – 7 out of 10