It’s been said that Belfast rockers Girls Names don’t sound like Belfast. Until now, their hooky, lo-fi surf rock gave some credence to that notion, in particular a handful of songs that reek of California sun.

What really confused people was that there was an air of municipal gloom about a lot of this breezy, summery fare. Tracks from Dead To Me, their cattily-titled debut album earned the hype-fuelled foursome oodles of comparisons to The Smiths, it’s jangly, vintage-sounding guitars carrying that same angular bounce, and singer Cathal Cully echoing Morrissey’s divine artistic misery.
On follow-up The New Life, Girls Names (for the record, there’s just one girl’s name and it’s Claire) have held onto the gloom, but done away with the surf: ominous bass lines, psychedelic rhythms and meandering, reverb-laden guitar riffs take the place of peppy melodies and Cully’s perpetually downbeat croon finds a more natural home in ‘80s synth play.
Comparisons to modern pop revivalists Best Coast, Washed Out and Tennis can be replaced with traces of post-punk luminaries The Cure and Joy Division, and while hooks do exist on the 43-minute LP, they’re invariably steeped in murky, ambling instrumentals.
Far from being a bad thing, the unguarded experimentation on The New Life makes for an altogether more interesting record; it’s fascinating to hear the guitars shift from grunge (‘Pittura Infamante’) to metal (‘Hypnotic Regression’), or the mood shift from sleepy (‘Occultation’) to seductive (‘Drawing Lines’). Cully’s musings are not always clearly distinguishable in the cinematic haze – in fact, minutes pass without us hearing his lethargic drawl at all – but when we can make out what he’s saying, things are kept suitably abstract. Moments like the ghostly droning on ‘A Second Skin’, the title track’s unexpected tempo-shifting and the sudden breakdown from trippy electronics to thoughtful strumming on ‘Projektions’ tell you that this is not messing about for messing about’s sake. This is an album made with intent.
It’s true that The New Life doesn’t boast as many singable choruses as Dead To Me, but these 10 tracks are memorable in a completely different way; strung together, it makes for a challenging listen, but there’s still plenty of personality in its dark, sinister waters. Whether it sounds like Belfast or not is ia moot point, but any self-respecting city-dwellers should be proud to be associated with its heavy drama and harmonious noise.