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Is it too clichéd to call The Morning Light’s new EP sunny? Really there is no word that can more accurately describe the earnest vocals, jangly guitars and handclapped choruses of the Pittsburgh quintet’s major-label debut.

Singers Harrison Wargo and Bobby Garver recall Jack’s Mannequin’s Andrew McMahon paired with Death Cab for Cutie‘s Ben Gibbard. Like McMahon and Gibbard, they sing with a sincerity that gives the impression they really mean everything they’re saying. Just listen to the 30-second intro to closing track The Sounds and you’ll swear it’s a Postal Service song.

While the EP only has six songs, it appears to be a good approximation of the exact sound The Morning Light hopes to channel once their full-length album is released. Between the instrumental guitar breaks and hippie-ish tambourines, The Morning Light evoke a more organic feel to each of their songs. Not to say they don’t rock out on occasion. On the frustration-tinged ballad You’re Not Mine, heavy guitars back the singers as they shout “You’re not mine and I know it/ But that night I couldn’t hold it in/ Because I feel just right when you’re standing next to me.”

Not surprisingly, The Sounds of Love EP draws much of its inspiration from failed or on-the-mend relationships. In only twenty minutes The Morning Light manages to span the gamut of relationship trauma, without getting bogged down in too much sentimentality. This is best demonstrated on Clouds, a song with bitterly pleading lyrics but an ironically buoyant melody. Even though you want to feel sorry for Wargo and Garver as they cry that “some days it seems like the clouds won't stay away,” you’re too busy clapping along to the beat.

While The Sounds of Love EP isn’t the most hard-rocking album, it does work in its own way mainly because it’s heartfelt and honest.  In other words, it’s almost exactly what you’d expect love to sound like.