On Dec. 12, the Rochester garage-rock quartet Anamon delivered listeners a holiday gift of sorts — a pair of songs free to stream and download. Having not heard much from the band since before the pandemic began, “My Baby Left Me” and “Bad Subtraction” sounds like revisiting an old friend.

Both songs fly by at a brisk pace as they address feelings of loss and heartache, but the contrast between the two is what makes the pairing work as well as it does. Clocking in at a mere 91 seconds, “My Baby Left Me” is sludgy rock ‘n’ roll, with singer-guitarist Ana Monaco projecting cool indifference.

Whereas the brevity and loping swagger of the first song suggest the denial and dismissiveness of pain after a breakup, “Sad Subtraction” has a more emotive, “heart-on-the-sleeve” feeling about it, with its guitar overdrive and propulsive drums, and Monaco singing, “Is there less of me ‘cause you want more of me?”

All together, the music lasts only five minutes, but it’s more than enough to make you wonder what we’ll hear from Anamon next.

Daniel J. Kushner is CITY’s music editor. He can be reached at [email protected].