Picture This’ latest opus, Parked Car Conversations, promised to be the two-man-band-turned-four-piece’s most ambitious project yet. Its trailer, depicting the eponymous stationary automobile and overdubbed by frontman Ryan Hennessy’s spoken word musings, suggested the Athy lads might just be having a go at a concept album, centred around the “deep intimacy” of conversations taking place with “no sense of time” and “no final destination.”

The deep intimacy is present and correct, but in truth, the album doesn’t go full concept. Parked Car Conversations starts strongly: ‘Act Of Innocence’, with its fuzzy 16th-note bassline and glittery piano, is energetic, catchy and worthy of beginning any pop record. The gospel-inspired ‘Get On My Love’ follows suit, and its chorus will take up serious real estate in the minds of anyone who hears it.

The LP’s strengths lie in Hennessy’s enviable knack for crafting melodies: its hooks are destined to be sung in unison by devotees when the band tour this summer. The lyrics ebb between witty wordplay (“Let me let you let this never end”) and curious melodrama (the singer insisting he’d rather be mauled by wild animals, or sever his arteries, than be in love on ‘Lions Den’). Overall, PCC has some stand-out tender moments – but while the subject matter generally focuses on the familiar terrain of love, on ‘Song To Myself’, Hennessy discusses his mental health struggles with acute honesty: “Make sure that sad little kid back then would be proud / And of you’re needing some help, just fucking reach out.”

Now that is a conversation with no final destination that’s worth having. There is a lot for fans to cherish on Parked Car Conversations.

6/10