Full disclosure: Within the first 30 seconds of Club Smith’s The Loss EP, I was ready to write this quartet off as a second-rate Bloc Party clone. Then the chorus of opener ‘Lament’ hit; everything changed. The song starts out as Hail to the Thief-era Radiohead by way of post-punk and transforms into a lush dream pop/shoegaze rocker that reaches for the stars. I imagine that’s the point of Club Smith’s songwriting: It’s all about the (soaring) hook. And every song has one. Take any of the four here and it’s obvious that Club Smith writes with more maturely than its short history suggests.But it’s not just the hooks that make this EP worth your time, though that would be enough to justify it. The band ”“ singer/guitarist Sam Robson, keyboardist/samplist Neil Clark, bassist Lee Clark and drummer Vijay Mistry ”“ form an interlocking sum that is infinitely greater than its parts, with each resulting song built in much the same way. ‘Courtyard,’ for example, dances along a robotic guitar riff laid over the frantic pulse of the rhythm section. Upon further listens, it’s apparent that CS wants you to discover hidden gems in the songwriting, even after a dozen spins. Hence the sci-fi effects buried in the right channel which add to the overall track’s (and EP’s) atmosphere. ‘Connected’ funnels Joy Division (and, yes, Interpol) through a maze of background synth that twinkles and squeaks. Finally, ‘No Friend of Mine’ plays upon the vocal hook mentality of early Who singles while throwing in a rave party bass line and to ensure a riotous groove. Because of this dense song structure, every track here is simply a winner no matter how many times you hear it.This includes the lyrical content. As the title points out, all of the cuts here deal with the loss of love. ‘Lament’ discusses regret: “With pointed eyes and bated breath/ I wait for her, I wait for her.” By the end of the song, the mantra becomes not just about a girl but about life. ‘Courtyard’ seems to be the sequel to the story with Robson declaring, “You can never say this love was wrong.” The Loss appears to be a self-help EP, music all about telling yourself that everything will be OK. It’s almost as if Robson wants this one girl out of his head permanently. Or at the very least make peace with her being gone as he admits on ‘Connected,’ “I haven’t got an axe to grind/ Just a razor in my pocket, razor in my pocket/ Have myself to find,” and later concedes, “But I still open up ‘cause she’s so connected.”Despite only having a single-length run time, The Loss EP is an exciting exercise in overcoming heartbreak. And while the lyrics can, at times, be a tad painful to endure, they are nonetheless poignant and, thus, demand attention. That said, the music isn’t mopey as the EP’s title (and lyrics) may imply. Instead, it’s ”“ dare I say ”“ uplifting in a way. In addition, it’s fun to play “spot the influence.’ I won’t ruin them all, as they are fun to stumble across for yourself, but included in the surprisingly long list are The Cure, U2, Editors, The Smashing Pumpkins and, curiously, The Prodigy. Whether you’re suffering through heartache or not, Club Smith are a band you must spend time with because, as the band itself put it last week, “we do a new take on miserable.”