This London five-piece band, led by main songwriter Mike Cranny, includes ex-members of Astronauts, Dark Captain, Quickspace and Left With Pictures.
Most of this debut release was recorded over 5 days in Summer which probably explains why the drifting, hazy mood conjures up images of languid days spent lazing on a beach or strolling in a park.
Synthesized effects and wind instruments - clarinet, flugelhorn and flute - effectively neutralise rock dynamics to give the songs a polished, ambient veneer.
There's no sense of hurry or that any strong emotions are being vented but the detached quality of the songs is perhaps deceptive. There is the nagging sense that the constraint derives as much from fear as from tranquillity. This is born out by the band's online notes where they describe their songs as hinting at a "bruised purity".
"Scratch the surface 'till it hurts" runs one creepy line on Cold Sweaty Palms suggesting that at least some of these songs were not, after all, conceived in a state of blissful calm.
If you take titles like Lonely Man,Always Further and Never Closer at face value, the desire to make meaningful connections could be taken as being at the root of any underlying anxiety.
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All twelve songs blend melodiously into one another to the extent that no one track stands out although it's easy to hear why the relatively catchy Forgetful Man was chosen as the lead single.
Only on Alma, the seven and half minute closing track, do the band show real signs of letting their hair down and shedding some of the collective inhibitions.
The hushed, neutral vocals and smooth dreampop style made me recall the short-lived 1990s Brighton band Frazier Chorus in that the superficial gloss appears to mask feelings of dis-ease.
Or maybe I'm reading too much into songs that can certainly be enjoyed as breezy pop tunes while snoozing in a real or imaginary deck chair.
Firestations' website
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