Firestations – The Year Dot

London five-piece Firestations are one of many out there promoting themselves as an "alt-pop band with a twist". And in some places, the band succeed on that promise on their second album The Year Dot, when they dare to push the boat out. For instance, Make Your Own Mind Up offers something intriguing, building atmosphere using synths and Laura Copsey's flugelhorn, with a softly-spoken groove to it underpinned by the band's rhythm section: Giles Littleford (bass) and Tom Hargreaves (drums). Equally, Old Letters has a pleasant psychedelic vibe to it, recalling some of Yo La Tengo's more dreamy moments. 

Single Receiver also shifts proceedings up a gear, a welcome moment which the rest of the record could happily have done more with. The issue with it, and the entire album, however, is that everything sounds so wishy-washy it's hard to really stay engaged with the remainder of Firestations' sophomore record. Whether that's a production choice or the band's playing style, or a little of both, remains to be seen, but an album of potentially interesting ideas sounds so watered down here it's difficult to really recall what's going on here. 

There are plenty of nice catchy melodies, such as on opener Build a Building or Far Future Morning which gives enough evidence to suggest that, perhaps live, Firestations are worth their weight. As is though, this largely fey sounding record gets lost in the sea of many bands trying to do the same thing, without as much of a liferaft to keep it afloat.

Listen to: Make Your Own Mind Up, Receiver, Old Letters