Mother Loose, a two sided single from Vancouver gals Primp, is the latest in an evolutionary process that has taken the band from lo-fi through power pop to garage rock. Cheekily scrawled in the liner notes on Primp’s Bandcamp page, “This is the last of allie’s breakup tracks (for now…) so enjoy i guess” puts an emotional lynchpin in Mother Loose’s otherwise fun, hooky melodies.

On one hand, it’s a perfectly breezy listen, with credit to Aly Laube’s sunny power-pop vocals and a heavy serving of guitar and bass — central traits in Primp’s earlier release, Half-Bloom. Mother Loose however delivers the guitar-bass-drums template to tougher grooves and articulates a sincerity essential to this style of rock. Veering towards bolder gestures, Mother Loose unveils two tracks that are sharper, richer and distantly sadder — “Don’t Wanna” has a strutting rhythm/bass forward sound that inlays call and response countermelodies over climbing power chords. Instead of the fuzzy soft peaks Half-Bloom offered, Primp has taken steps towards a harder sound and an antic energy due in part to the “breakup album” onus.

Mother Loose has the thematic underpinning of adolescent figures and spins it through the emancipated, confident but ultimately sharp lens of adult womanhood. Tracks like “No Fun” relish in this kiddie-like candor but ultimately maintain their edge in lyric and tone: “Are you restless? / I don’t blame you / It’ll be alright” expresses the toxic stillness of intimacy, all the while letting loose a little chaos. In a similar vein, “Don’t Wanna” has a childlike tone and is paired with an extra raucous funk sound — totally unencumbered and doing just what it seems Primp will be pulling for the full release of Mother Loose: bracing gooey emotions with an effortless full-torque thrust of fuck it.