Put Your Sad Down is a departure, of sorts, from School of Seven Bells‘ last effort, the nacreous, somnambulistic Ghostory, in that where the previous album leaned heavily upon shoegazey sensibilities intermixed with more up-tempo themes, “Sad“ instead veers into borderline electronic dance music territory, replete with muscular synths and danceable drums and a heavier reliance on Alejandra Deheza’s vocals within the rest of the music. Deheza arguably takes a more prominent position on the EP, particularly on “Secret Days,” wherein her place in the instrumentation is burdened with more of the song’s structure, a challenge she handles ably. Despite the changes, the departure is not total; ever present is the slightly haunting atmosphere that permeates all of the band’s canon.

Gone for the most part are the dreamlike, sweeping vistas of previous works, the shades of grays replaced by barbed neon hooks, greens and blues and pinks. The eponymous track is an extended foray into this different world, a nearly 13-minute long pleading (“So baby no pressure/I’m just talking pleasure”) that rides a bouncing synth melody and the band’s trademark Egyptian princess undercurrent directly into a segue into the ethereal before reemerging with the exceedingly catchy EDM aspects out of the mist. Deheza’s clipped hook stabs brisk and wide, like a trough blade, and stands in contrast with the simple lines she paints over the rest of the song.

The aforementioned “Secret Days” is Deheza’s chance to shine, a rattling piece of music that is built entirely around her transitions from breathy whispers, to hints of salaciousness, to gliding through the nonsensical bridges that stitch all of the voices together. The backing is appropriately sparse, percussion- and ambient sound-heavy, low motion upon which Deheza can easily flight upon.

Silver Apples cover “Lovefingers” best captures the inherent bend to the macabre present in School of Seven Bells, a pieces whose eerie synths — evoking images of ink black Kuwaiti nights lit on the distant horizon by blazing oil fires — are juxtaposed rather disconcertingly by an uplifting melody line in such a way as to draw strength from the contrast.

Electronic dance music is omnipresent as of late, a pop culture blue-ringed octopus with tentacles extending from the most hep and discerning of dance floors to top 40 radio sets and television commercials, a proliferating wave that threatens to lift high, and then lay low, any artist who wishes to ride upon it without keeping at the core of their work a sense of themselves that can outlast the form’s current popularity. By embracing the straightforward danceability of the moment while pushing Deheza nearer the forefront — where her range, although limited here, allows her to overtake singers working on similar planes — and maintaining the haunting, spiritual atmosphere and sense of mystery that helps to define them, School of Seven Bells creates a new sound that manages to remain unmistakably of themselves.

(Vagrant Records, 5566 West Washington Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90016)

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B. David Zarley is a freelance writer based in Chicago. You can find him on Twitter @BDavidZarley or at the Gingerman Tavern on any given night.