Released four months after the full-length I'll Be Your Girl, the EP Traveling On collects five outtakes from the album sessions the Decemberists held with producer John Congleton. I'll Be Your Girl had a sleek surface reminiscent of glossy '80s New Wave, but that sound only surfaces on the hyper-charged opener. Most of these remainders hearken back to strands of music that are often seen as the Decemberists's wheelhouse. "I Will Not Say Your Name" begins as a dirge in the style of mid-period R.E.M., then slides into a mildly funky vamp, while the title track is a burnished bit of folk-rock. "Tripping Along," which was performed by Colin Meloy alone with an electric guitar on I'll Be Your Girl, is presented as a full band but it's somewhat overshadowed by "Midlist Author," a stately bit of pop reminiscent of the first wave of post-McCartney singer/songwriters from the early '70s. Taken all together, these five songs constitute a prime EP: leftovers that didn't fit the mood of the album proper but are well worth hearing on their own terms. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine