Girl Ray review: Teenage ambition in need of fine-tuning

Earl Grey
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Artist: Girl Ray
Genre: Pop
Label: Moshi Moshi

In many respects, Girl Ray’s debut album is the sort of record you might expect of three 19-year-old women obsessed with lo-fi indie-pop writing about their lovelorn teenage escapades. In many others, it’s patently not.

This introduction to the London-band has a certain disarming charm; Poppy Hankin's wry lyrics and solemn thrum evokes the likes of Belle & Sebastian at their most twee, or the bass and jangly guitar of several songs, including Waiting Ages, drawing parallels with Orange Juice.

The 13-minute-long multi-part title track pays testament to their ambition, but too much of this album relies on warbly basslines, zig-zagging organ and scratchily strummed stringed instruments, and it makes for a rather homogenous collection at times. Still, many of these songs show real promise. Let's see what they do next. facebook.com/girlraylondon

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy is a freelance journalist and broadcaster. She writes about music and the arts for The Irish Times