There’s no shortage of lo-fi, singer-songwriter, urban gunslingers on the modern anti-folk circuit and beyond, but if you think you’ve heard the like of Benjamin Shaw before then think again. I Got The Pox, The Pox Is What I Got is a six-track EP from a true original: it’s happy, sad, funny, catchy, possibly unhinged and quite brilliant.

For the uninitiated, ‘The Carpeteer’ is pretty much a perfect introduction into the world of Benjamin Shaw. The simple, beguiling melody; the lyrics, rooted firmly in our everyday world but delivered with a whimsy that lends the whole thing a dreamlike state (“I wish some conversation would come quicker-er than mine/and I wish that you would shout more to help me keep the time”), a state that’s enforced by an encroaching synthesised psychedelia that rears its head intermittently.

Of the other treats in store, ‘Thanks For All The Biscuits’, which opens the EP, is preceded by a tripped-out psychedelic introduction reminiscent of early Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, before settling into the kind of irresistibly effortless pop-folk that Okkervil River have made a career of perfecting. ‘Chocolate Girl’ is a gorgeous, swooning, country-tinged lament and while the lilting tones carry over into other songs here, such as the title track, ‘I Got The Pox, the Pox is What I Got’, the latter is actually an altogether more bitter affair, though none the less engaging for it. Its simple, affecting melody is every bit as infectious as the eponymous pox, until around the half-way mark when it melts down into an unexpected fuzzed-up nether-world for a remarkable 5 minute outro.

‘When I Fell Over In The City’ is possibly the highlight of this collection. It’s typical of the understated delivery that Shaw does so well, but infused with an underlying confidence that betrays his true standing. “Well I’ve got you all hanging on to my misery/There’s a fine line between talented and me”. That sounds like something of a mission statement right there.

And for all the lazy comparisons that I’m tempted to throw into the melting pot… Adam Green, Will Sheff etc… it’s Syd Barrett, specifically The Madcap Laughs album, that seems the most appropriate. Listening to that record was an intimate experience; one that made you feel as if you were there in the studio, complete with all the accompanying background noises and feedback. And similarly, Benjamin Shaw succeeds at drawing you right inside his world. An audience of one. It’s an admirably, almost brazenly, honest and personal performance. Somehow nonchalant and intense at the same time. It could even be unnerving if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s so utterly enchanting.

Benjamin’s songs come across as modern urban fairytales. Like wolves in grandma’s clothing, they wear their simple, seductive melodies as a disguise before betraying their true nature and biting you on the backside with an acerbic lyrical twist (“I’ll turn up at night, say that I’m fine, while picturing your limbs in the freezer” – ‘I Got The Pox..’) or a love-sick lament (“I can still smell your hair in the summer, when I clean out my sink” – ‘Chocolate Girl’). The lack of pretension and self-importance is a breath of fresh air, yet each one of these six unassuming songs is an epic in its own bedsit.

Easy to get into, yet with a depth it seemingly tries hard to conceal beneath its DIY stylings, I Got The Pox, The Pox Is What I Got is a lovely, strange, fragile thing, and introduces Benjamin Shaw as one of the most exciting new songwriters out there today.