As the title of this EP suggests, Sam Barber has quickly set himself apart from his peers. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter from rural Missouri found his footing as part of a still-growing cohort of young country-adjacent upstarts inspired in large part by Zach Bryan, but Barber has since proven he has a vision all his own. Coming several months after the release of Barber’s sophomore album Broken View, this six-pack of tunes already feels like a leap forward. He’s found a greater sense of restraint with his singing, seeming more instinctually aware of when to pull back and when to let it rip. His lyric-writing has matured, too, with greater nuance and precision adding emotional heft to songs like “Outlier,” on which Barber frankly addresses his ongoing struggles with anxiety and personal responsibility with lyrics like, “Lost in the nightlife, I’m caught in a mudslide/I caused it alone.” Other highlights on Outlier include “Northern Weeds,” a wrenching account of heartbreak made darker by lushly grungy production from Joe Becker, and “Good Faith,” which tempers the stomp-clap influences of Barber’s earliest work with sludgy guitar and a gently hypnotic swirl of banjo and pedal steel.