More than singer-songwriter and piano virtuoso, Halifax-based Mat Hughes is a storyteller and performer of unique magnetism who makes each audience member feel like they’re catching up with an old friend. From playing dive bars and DIY house shows to touring across Canada and gracing hundreds of stages in his home province—most recently, the release show for his latest EP at The Stage at St. Andrews in Halifax—he’s quickly made a name for himself as one of Nova Scotia’s most original talents.

For all its foot-tapping, hi-fi instrumentation and subject matter liable to make you laugh out loud—from hot garbage to a bird flown headfirst into a window—Hughes’ third EP “South-Facing Dumpster” may at face value feel like a lighthearted pop album à la John or Joel. Upon closer listening, Mat's juxtaposition of upbeat melodies and wry, metaconscious lyricism exposes both the absurdity of our contemporary moment and the all-too-human ways we cope with it. Going for a walk to ward off the doom; sticking your head in the sand when the truth is too hard to swallow; mistaking light pollution for a sunrise. These songs teem with the platitudes of a thinly veiled nihilism, each terse line a live wire straight to the vein.

A cohesive continuation yet refined departure from his previous releases, “South-Facing Dumpster” asks what programmed motions steer us through an often-unforeseeable future; how the sun persists in its orbit despite all odds. And how on a road leading nowhere, full of streetlights illuminating nothing, we somehow find a way to enjoy the drive.