On the heels of the single “When You Can,” singer-songwriter Nick Peay continues his series of themed releases with Sobering, available for download and on CD via Red Corduroy Music.

The five-track EP spins the tale of a narrator in the grips of a addiction, following him from denial to rock bottom to eventual redemption. The perky opener “Put This Bottle Down,” belies the journey upon which the naive narrator is about to embark. “Yes, I want you back/But screw that damn program,” Peay croons over a beautifully recorded pop/rock number with an infectious hook and sublime delivery.

“Every Morning” jumps in next with a flurry of acoustic guitar and a tone that is just a bit more somber, before breaking into a chorus every bit as catchy as the hook in the lead-off track; but this time, denial is fading away for the protagonist. His repeated readings of a devastating goodbye note and his reliving of that key moment portends bad things.

The next track, “I Won’t Fall in Love,” is precisely where things begin to turn south. The narrator, stuck in stark depression and alcohol-induced vulnerability, weaves his way through a drunken, ill-fated encounter with a woman at a bar. Peay deftly mixes strings into the narrator’s precipitous fall.

It is next that the dark title track delivers the crash landing, as our hero finds himself at rock bottom not just in verse, but musically as well. Peay and his bandmates stir in twists and turns (toy pianos, for instance) that take the listener down a path that is almost psychedelic, complete with spooky voiceovers, Pink Floyd-esque sound spectres and more. The EP finally concludes with a short reprise of “Put This Bottle Down” which has the protagonist picking himself up and actually putting the bottle down once and for all.

“Sobering is an EP that I wrote several years ago,” Peay says. “I actually forgot about it, and when I rediscovered the demos I’d recorded, I brought it to the band. We recorded most of it in two days at Al Fresco’s Recording Studio in the Highlands.

“And while it isn’t autobiographical,” he continues, “I think it tells a story that is probably familiar to all of us. People lose themselves in addictions every day, and it doesn’t have to be drugs or alcohol – it might be a bad relationship or a job, and it’s up to us to find our way out. I believe Sobering speaks to all these things.”