Yup. Everyone is looking for answers.

Early in 2023 a curious new band hit the scene offering up a whole lot of 1960s beat-group shake and sizzle. The Plus 4 quickly issued 4 tunes, one a month, before disappearing just as mysteriously as they had arrived. But what a quartet of singles they left us! The tunes channeled a glammy Kinks/Beatles/Byrds melange (reviewed here) that definitely had me wanting more. Well, it would appear the wait is now over and the mystery of just who this band is can be solved.

Turns out – it was Super 8 behind every song.

Why am I not really surprised? Paul Ryan is a master of sixties stylings, deploying hints of all the great beat groups, right from the British invasion through their psychedelic reinventions and beyond to the sunshine pop that took them into the 1970s. His songs are littered with inventive reworkings of Kinks, Beatles, Beach Boys and Byrdsian motifs. But this Plus 4 project is something special. It’s like he’s put a particularly unique sixties filter on the stereo for these tunes. What I hear is a bit more stripped down affair, with greater prominence given to the jangly guitars, and a stronger to-the-front-of-the-mix on the vocals. Check out for yourself just what the differences amount to by hitting play on the just released The Plus 4 EP #1. You get – no surprise here – four songs. One track is a slightly revamped take on “Resolution (Happy New Year),” the project’s very first single that came out in early January. Glam Kinks was how I initially described it and I stand by that declaration. From there we segue into the new tunes, starting with the swinging Meet-the-Beatlesque “Take It From Me.” The guitar so nails the period. Dance-able? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. “Every Word is True” breaks out the harmonica to good effect. Then things wrap up with the janglelicious “Tell It Like It Is.” The EPs overall effect is like a fresh blast of Merseyfied poprock at its finest.

Given the prior releases and now these new tunes my guess is that this is only the start of a fab new year for us and The Plus 4. Mystery solving never sounded so good.