Transfer - Future Selves (Cool Green)

Pretty much everything about this record is drenched in nostalgic America sunlight, but the band are inventive enough to use this much to their strength: simple chord progressions are marked by almost pious vocals, reverbed guitars and an understated bass and drum cabal. Most songs on here are very much big, and sound like they’re actively reaching for the sky – even though they’re nowhere near that level yet (however, a recent string of support for Brandon Flowers seems to have tripped a switch on the ambition scale).The elegant strings on ‘Wake To Sleep’, for example, suggest a band with every intention of hitting those heights.

Transfer’s influences are worn on their sleeve, but healthily – so that the hefty likes of My Morning Jacket and Arcade Fire drip through the mics like honey, onto songs which are nurtured by that kind of tonal touch. Much joy is to be heard in Jason Cardenas’ and Matthew Molarius’ vocal work, and touches like the trudging percussion on closer ‘White Horse’ – which evoke the same feel of American-era Johnny Cash – paint an album a few more shades on the side of interesting than most other contemporaries attempting a similar sonority.

It all adds up to a pretty familiar listen, but notably a memorable one. There is plenty of originality within taste and context to be found, and you cannot deny a group who can be audibly heard that they sincerely mean what they’re playing.