At once sweetly gawky and fairly well-polished, the Railway Children’s debut album is very much a product of its late 80s UK indie rock times: guitar-led, shimmeringly melodic and somewhat understatedly sung. Not necessarily the fault of lead figure Gary Newby, who sounds a little mixed into the band’s music at points, but it’s more of an album to gently sway and nod your head to on a lazy afternoon. His ruminations are engaging enough, however, and songs like “First Notebook” and “Brighter” have all the feelings of young life, love and loss down.

– Ned Raggett