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

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