Christina Ward has been an honest-to-god DIY musician until now, performing without a band on the many singles and an EP that she’s released. Also, thus far, Ward’s music has been as “green” as DIY music could be, sounding no better than bedroom-recorded demos. On Neon, a six-song EP, she turns up with a full-fledged band and proves to be an artist to take serious note of.

Neon is quite a transformation for this rookie artist. Not only is performing with a band a big step for Ward, it appears that she has dove into a full-on collaboration, giving her band-mates all the space they need to unleash their creativity, as she does hers. The outcome of this is nothing short of extraordinary, delivering satisfying, guitar-based, band-focused music.

Take “Static” for instance, that sounds like a sixties/seventies-era psychedelic rock song, with Ward’s languorous vocals, spacey keyboards, and equally spacey rhythmic guitar explosions that have the rawness and bite of hard rock music from that era. However, what’s most surprising is the drumming that pounds away as if it is drummer Tim Arnold’s last time ever behind the drum kit. In fact, “Static’s” last two minutes are essentially a drum jam, as the song ever so slowly fades out over that time, while the drums relentlessly pounds on until silence finally suffocates it, ending a highly satisfying musical endorphin rush reminiscent of jam bands from yore and totally uncharacteristic of a singer-songwriter from the current generation.

“Alive” brings the disaffected sound of the nineties… “alive,” with its acoustic guitar/cello combo that’s stoic but biting. Also invoking the nineties, “Pharmacy” starts off à la Semisonic or Better Than Ezra, but has these really cool musical interludes where Ward goes “Soundgarden” on the listener, with pugnacious rhythms and odd time signatures that come out of nowhere accompanied by fantastic drumming that make this number so cool and interesting. Similarly, “Wrapped Up” has a wicked musical interlude with a killer solo that’s psychedelic, explosive, and long, and takes its own sweet time to wrap up, as it would do in a proper hard rock song.

“Darkstar” and “Neon” represent the pinnacle of this EP. “Darkstar” brings to mind Mazzy Star, where Ward’s smoky vocals are paired with part-psychedelic part-shoegaze music. This track has an eerie beauty, whose mysterious mood is made more tense by Ward’s effective use of droning keyboards.

“Neon” starts off in breezy tranquility until it explodes with killer Zeppelin-influenced retro guitars, creating a glorious juxtaposition between the airy and aggressive parts—with the drums not caring and pounding away in the back regardless—that makes up this song. However, at a little short of the halfway point, Ward lets the guitar take over the song, as it unleashes a shredding solo so magnificent that you just give into it and bathe in its radiance.

Ward appears so comfortable with her band that it is easy to forget that Neon is by an artist who til now has been making music all alone. Ward’s willingness to give complete creative freedom to her band is a great call on her part, as it elevates her already strong songcraft to a whole new level. If this little EP could foretell the future, it is that this self-assured spirit in Ward ,coupled with her fantastic chemistry with her band, has the potential to do amazing things in the future.

Rating: B+

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