Skip School Vacation 58 Records **

Having cut their teeth as members of Republic of Loose, brother and sister duo Orla and Cormac “Bres” Breslin have struck out on their own in an apparent homage to the 1980s. The glossy, Americanised sheen of Skip School suggests the pair spent their childhood watching too many episodes of Degrassi High, particularly on Never Gonna Get It and Lose My Mind. Elsewhere, Future Ex-Wife sounds bizarrely imitative of Miami Sound Machine, while the shadow of Steely Dan looms large over the cheesy strut of These Girls. Yet despite their best efforts there’s no escaping their past, and too many of these songs sound like inferior cuts from their former band’s catalogue. It’s an album with

its heart in the right place, but also one that's too musically homogenous and lyrically one-dimensional to matter. carslovegirls.com

LAUREN MURPHY

Download tracks: Cars Love Girls, Funny Little Thing