Because my stack of Louisiana CDs looking for reviews never gets smaller, and the stack of CDs I’m trying to get to grows exponentially, I’m rarely thrilled when people who are never going to play here and that don’t do LA music send their CDs simply because the odds are against them getting reviewed. Still, when someone sends a CD from Malta – does it still exist? – I feel like it deserves at least a listen.

Fortunately, the self-titled EP by the Areola Treat is reminiscent of minor acts on Rough Trade in the late 1970s. The songs have that era’s post-punk lack of guitar histrionics, leaving the spotlight to the animated vocalist Lisa Micallel Grimaud. She yelps, whispers, and adopts voices and in the closing “Second Coming,” she gets lost in the echo chamber. She toes up to the nutty line but doesn’t cross it, drawing attention to the simple catchiness of the songs.