SPENDING the better part of two years releasing one quality track after another, Tuff Love seemed completely incapable of disappointing their ever-expanding fanbase. With meaningful seals of approval from artists such as Andy Bell’s legendary Ride and Paolo Nutini, the pressure is now mounting.

Despite the interrogatory gaze of critics and fans as they prepare to release their Dregs EP, it’s relieving to know that it is a varied and envelope-pushing effort from the band that is wholly indicative of their continually demonstrated potential.

Straddling both the ornateness of C86 era indie pop and the punchiness of American lo-fi extraordinaire acts like Pavement and Sebadoh, ‘Duke’ is epitomised by the intriguing middle ground that its vocals operate within; simultaneously passive and yet tinged with raw, unadulterated emotion. Their impeccable ear for poppy melodies and ability to combine them with flashes of subtle volatility remains undiminished as they make their way toward the next stage of their career, a fact which will certainly leave those that have followed the band from the outset overjoyed.

With dreamy and nonplussed vocals colliding with swathes of benevolently fuzz coated guitar, ‘Crocodile’ sees the band hint toward a more outwardly aggressive edge before gleefully rearing themselves back in and even inserting some unexpected instrumentation that will both befuddle and delight.

With a frenetic and deeply affecting bassline, punky, insistent percussion and a renewed immediacy in its guitar lines, ‘Threads’ is one of the EP’s most musically arresting compositions. With the band thoughtfully proclaiming that “everything is easy when time is on your side”, it laments missed opportunities and the squandered time that we can ill afford to waste during our finite time as living things. Neatly juxtaposing its brash riffs by their atypically angelic vocal delivery, ‘Threads’ is stirring from the outset and seems like a logical step which; alongside tracks such as ‘Groucho’ and ‘That’s Right’ from previous releases, shows just how rugged they can be without compromising on the motifs that set them apart.

Adopting an inflection which wouldn’t be out of place on an early Nico record, ‘Amphibian’ mixes beautifully crafted pop with hard hitting drums and deluges of immersive guitar that swirl around the foreground and enable the listener to let the track wash over them with little hesitation.

Introspective and atmospheric, ‘Carbon’ is a fragile yet compelling composition which is built around enchanting guitars, soaring harmonies and a chorus which will embed itself within the confines of your consciousness for hours after multiple listens. Treading along the peripheries of shoegaze and demonstrating just how astutely they can meld in facets of genres which may seem alien to them at first glance, what becomes all too clear over the course of Dregs is the fact that they won’t be confined to any one niche. Whether this is a perception which they’re deliberately trying to purvey is of no significance as anyone who allows this EP to work its way into your ears will be duly rewarded by the richness of its musicality and the often subtle yet consistent adjustments to their sound which Tuff Love make over the course of its five track duration.

As critically lauded as they’ve been up until this point, there’s no question that there’s further prosperity on the horizon for this outfit. A band that can simultaneously make their presence felt on mainstream radio without obscuring their sound beyond all recognition is bound to succeed in a climate which is always grasping at the ankles of talented yet unrefined hopefuls, striving to deliver the ‘next big thing.’ Any notion of being in any way unprepared certainly no longer applies to Tuff Love’s Julie Eisentstein and Suse Bear, a pair of individuals that can convey precisely what they set out to in their music and do so in a manner that is catchy and charming yet utterly unconstrained.

With Dregs and its many merits set to elevate them from a ‘hot prospect’ to a genuine force, 2016 is bound to bring them good tidings and the recognition which they rightfully deserve.