Mirrors

Lights and Offerings Skint ****

Lights and Offerings Skint****

Imagine you’re ’round at a member of Mirrors’ house. Someone suggests a game of 20 questions, so you rifle through their record collection for inspiration. “Am I Tears for Fears? Am I Heaven 17? Um, what about Depeche Mode?”

On the cover of Lights and Offerings, Mirrors stand all Teutonic, suit-clad with side partings . . . and the Kraftwerk penny drops. If their influences are splayed across a heavily worn sleeve, no matter, the songs are sufficiently slick. The art of reinventing retro is a tricky one to pull off, but these Brighton boys do it brilliantly. Synth pulses make for dancefloor magnets ( Ways to an End, Fear of Drowning), and they even offer electronic odes to heartbreak ( Something on Your Mind, Into the Heart). It bows out with the epic, Germanic swell of Secrets, and when it ends, you'll hit repeat. See myspace.com/mirrors mirrorsmirrors

Download tracks: Ways to an End, Fear of Drowning, Look at Me

Sinéad Gleeson

Sinéad Gleeson

Sinéad Gleeson is a writer, editor and Irish Times contributor specialising in the arts