Being tasked to write an album review can be fraught with emotions, but the opening slide guitar of Stephanie Catlett’s new EP, Face the Terrain, sold me immediately. The warm tones of the opening track are beautiful and evoke all of the ’70s-by-way-of-the-’90s alt country/indie I loved in college. “Eugene” is economical with its words, but not lacking in emotion, and it’s the last lines of the song that get me every time: “But patience is a rose, with her tired face exposed. There are petals falling at your feet, Eugene. Gather up your useless bounty, Eugene.”

“Face the Terrain,” the EP’s title track, is a stunner. I love the quality of Catlett’s vocals — the ability she has to draw on the huskiness of her voice, but still make it subtle and gentle. The influences of Hope Sandoval, Margo Timmins and the Deal sisters are not lost. It’s a comfort but can also cut like a knife. The sweetness and husk belie the messages in the lyrics on “Eugene,” finding the dichotomy between realizing that some lovers need to be told straight out, and the sweetness of the voice that delivers the harshness of that message. Catlett kills them with kindness. On “Face the Terrain,” the dream quality of the vocals meshes well with the production, and the fuzzy guitar opener gives way to the lo-fi rock sound and takes us on a journey that mimics what’s happening lyrically.

There are only four songs on this EP, and while I think the overall theme of the album is reflected in its title, the track “Pet Store Iguana” stands out. It asks listeners to empathize with an iguana in a pet store. In Iowa. In the poetry of the song, Catlett wishes she could take the iguana back to the desert — but we know that she isn’t talking about an iguana. It could easily be about anyone feeling like they’re on display in a place that only sees them as a curiosity, which applies to a lot of us living here at this complicated time.

The last track, “Love Song for the End Times,” is a haunting wander lyrically through Christian iconography. Musically, it takes us to the American southwest, and the nods to Spanish guitar and melancholy fiddle set us up for a spiritual journey. It feels like a deconstruction of sorts: Lyrics like “empty as the lies you believed, unsteady earth lurching under your feet, slipping over the edge of nothing” and the iconography of the narrator reaching her hand into the broken rib remind us of the creation story.

Every song on this EP explores the idea of facing some kind of reality, and the result is gorgeous. My only complaint for the record is that it isn’t longer. These four songs explore shifting realities so succinctly and beautifully that no more is needed. But I sure do want it.

Face the Terrain was released in February; it’s available on Bandcamp and Spotify.