Well, this is quite a nice surprise. New York City duo School Of Seven Bells, who released their third album, Ghostory, in February, are finishing out the year with a new EP, Put Your Sad Down.

“Put Your Sad Down is the most fun Alley [Alejandra Deheza] and I have had making music in a long time,” says School Of Seven Bells’ Benjamin Curtis. “We originally released early versions of some of these songs for our fans that made it out to our last U.S. tour. I guess we fell in love with these songs in a way we didn’t anticipate, so we decided to polish them up and make it official. Put Your Sad Down is the mantra we’re carrying with us into the New Year, and we’re excited to share it with you all.”

As that string of four words suggests, Put Your Sad Down is mood-altering stuff. The 5-track EP opens with the title track, a sprawling 13-minute dream-pop opus (“So baby, no pressure / I’m just stuck in pleasure”), followed by the comparatively brief but brilliant Madchester bump of “Secret Days.” School Of Seven Bells dip into real-deal psychedelia with a swirly cover of Silver Apples’ “Lovefingers,” from the early electronic duo’s eponymous 1968 debut, and close out Put Your Sad Down with another extended original, “Painting A Memory,” a 7-minute starry-eyed trip with Giorgio Moroder overtones.

Smack dab in the middle of Put Your Sad Down is the EP’s high point, the pulsatingly hypnotic and pleadingly emotional “Faded Heart.” Deheza’s ethereal vocals float above a thick layer of Robyn/Erasure-esque electropop, a combination that transports me to a happy place.

Stream all of Put Your Sad Down here:

Purchase School Of Seven Bells – Put Your Sad Down EP via iTunes, Amazon MP3.