Dark EP by Sam Billen (Review)

Most of Sam Billen’s music-making these days is taken up by his work at Primary Color Music, a production company that’s composed music for the likes of Amazon Japan, Google, Japan’s National Tourism Organization, Pokémon, and Toyota — to name but a few. (They’ve even done work for beloved Nebraska fast food institution Runza.) Which means that it’s been several years since his last release, 2020’s Christmas Eve in Hollywood.

It’s been so long, in fact, that his music has started flying under my radar, which is why I’m several months late to this 2025 EP. But as soon as I pressed “Play” on these four songs, it was like catching up with a long-lost friend. As with previous releases like 2012’s Places, Billen excels at crafting poignant indie-pop suffused with warmth and nostalgia, both of which are brought to life by gently treated vocals and lush production, guitar filigrees, and synth arrangements. (Think The Midnight by way of Sufjan Stevens, if that helps at all.)

When Billen sings “Float away/In your bed/In your dreams” whilst accompanied by a pretty little piano melody (“Little Words”), it’s advice well worth taking. As the song unfolds, though, it becomes apparent that Billen’s addressing a fractured relationship (“All I want is you to know that I’m here/Anymore it’s like you don’t even care”). That same sense flows into the EP’s closing track “In the Dark,” which is still as lush as anything from Billen, but a bit more foreboding, even with all of the ’80s synth work.

“Reaching out as far as my arms make it/Take a look, just take a look at what you’ve done,” Billen sings, his voice less affected than elsewhere on the EP; “We’re past the point of thinking we can save it/Found a hook, a hook that’s piercing through my heart.” The song concludes with this ominous male/female chorus: “Feeling better when the darkness comes in/Feeling better in the dark.” Those lyrics communicate a sense of dissolution and emptiness that isn’t exactly warm or nostalgic. However, it’s no less poignant, ending the EP on a dramatic cliffhanger that leaves me wanting to know more about the story, and the characters, behind the song.