Named after the metronome beat that allows musicians to record a track in time with the music, D.C.-based quartet Shwa’s EP Click Track is hardly as consistent as its namesake, but it shows a hint of promise. Musically, the band pulls off some interesting ideas, such as the Pablo Honey-esque Radiohead guitar line in “Amygdala” or the bouncy pop beat that leads “Amy” along. But Shwa sets its sights too high with the first track, “So Cry.” While it initially borders on sounding too much like a new Better Than Ezra single, the band brings so much energy to the song that you can’t not be impressed. It’s the type of song that would blow up on the radio if radio stations weren’t so busy asking record companies to pay to play. The downside: Where can an EP go after a song like that?

“Fact is Fiction” sounds like a b-side. “Amygdala” fares better, but with its overly simple lyrics and repetitive verses, it sounds like the band wrote the song around the cool guitar line, not the other way around. “Amy” and “Thanks but no Thanks” are serviceable, but they don’t exactly stand out. The last song, “Long Cold Winter,” sounds like a track left off Neva Dinova’s The Hate Yourself Change, which definitely isn’t a bad thing. But it sounds out of place on “Click Track.” The band admits the EP is darker and louder than 2004’s Just a Thought, and it sounds like arguments over the recording caused some thinning in the band’s ranks. Listening to Click Track as a whole, it’s unclear whether that more “sinister edge” has paid off for them, but the CD just might contain enough energy to get them by until the next full length.