Trouble Books shook the universe (universe of perfect justice anyway) last year with their United Colours Of Trouble Books album [reviewed here]. Now the sleepy couple from Akron return with this rather lovely little EP out on label M-I-E (rhymes), which offers more of the same loveliness.Truthfully, the very best first-album-follow-up EPs build from the preceding in tightness and consistency- some would place Watery, Domestic in this league (I personally wouldn't, because Slanted & Enchanted is pretty much untoppable), others might cite Gang of Four's Entertainment! follow-up Yellow (I think correctly, actually, at least for the A-sides) or Fins To Make Us More Fish-Like by Liars which is another personal favourite of mine. Either way, Endless Pool doesn't quite do this. I would probably place it more in the sort of league of the EPs The Wave Pictures put out last year- good, not great, side dishes to fantastic full-length albums.So, recorded around the full-length, Endless Pool is, like I said at the start, 'more of the same'. But that's no bad thing- because, if you remember from bothering to listen to the Trouble Books album last year, they sound like an amazing pillow made out of Yo La Tengo and waking-up-in-the-morning-next-to-someone-you've-loved-for-ages cuddles. Also there's a thin crack of sunlight coming in through your curtains as you wake up, your curtains are orange and tatty and from the seventies, and you can see the dust in the light. It's the most amazing sort of relaxing music because it's totally absorbing and never boring.So that's the good news. The bad news is that it sounds just like the album, really, and without necessarily the same absolute heights. But I don't think it would be unfair to say that if you liked the album, or just like this band generally, and didn't get this EP, then you would be committing some sort of grievous wrong, because it's a) got some really good stuff on it in its own right ('Hedgehog' especially, I'm looking at you), and b) obscure music (in this case both literally and figuratively) first. It's about 20 minutes of with-par-quality-wise music from a very good and aesthetically distinct band indeed. 76% Trouble Books on MySpace