Innovation is often a determining factor in deciding one’s opinion on a new band. Yeah, they might be hardcore, or dance punk, but what separates them from the pack? It is these elements that can make for the next hype machine or critical snubbing.

So what about when a band sounds eerily familiar? What if a new act reminds you of other bands you’ve grown to love without running the risk of copyright infringement? Like going back to the house you grew up in, they can elicit a warm sense of nostalgia. The End Of The World is one of those bands whose sound is an amalgamation of things that have come before without being a sonic clone.

Throughout the band’s four-song debut they play music reminiscent of a stripped down Arcade Fire or a turned down Interpol while singer Stefan Marolachakis belts out his lyrics in a voice that sounds uncannily like Trail Of Dead’s Conrad Keely. The EP’s opener, “The Little Theater,” recalls everyone’s favorite husband and wife-fronted Canadian indie poppers with its up-tempo, clean electric guitar and subdued but funky rhythm section, while “Faces” and closer “Tuesday Becomes Wednesday” come off like a softer, more Brit-pop version of Interpol. That band’s brooding and monotone delivery is replaced with a poppy optimism and half-shouted vocals.

Unfortunately, not everything on the EP is great, and when you only have four songs, one dud weighs heavily on the overall value of the product. “The Slip” starts with a quickly strummed guitar while a snare roll builds in the background. When the drums do come in they seem oddly slow and never catch up. The song always seems to be reaching for something that is just out of its grip.

Mistakes aside, if this is what the apocalypse sounds like, it won’t be so bad.