First rec­om­men­da­tion of the year: a sin­gle out in late Decem­ber by a band we’ve fol­lowed since their ear­ly days, the Lon­don based out­fit, Firestations.

The cap­ti­vat­ing new track called Reflec­tion Spells exhibits all those dis­tinc­tive ele­ments that the band are known for: reflec­tive dream pop charm with the sooth­ing har­monies of Mike Cran­ny and Lau­ra Copsey. There’s a hint of Mod­ern Stud­ies in their con­trolled and mod­u­lat­ed inter­twined vocals . 

The open­ing few notes estab­lish a hazy, soporif­ic atmos­phere, echoed by the lyrics which mull over love gone wrong, moments of a rela­tion­ship mulled over and picked apart. “You sit there tongue tied… these words don’t come often or not at all and it’s dif­fi­cult to speak them out loud.“ 

Reflec­tion Spells ups the melan­cho­lia and emo­tion with the vio­la, cour­tesy of spe­cial guest Neil Walsh who has played with Smoke Fairies, Video­cean and Shattercones. 

The song ebbs and flows, gui­tars build­ing and reced­ing, punc­tu­at­ed mid­way by a gui­tar solo by Mar­tin Thomp­son; a tem­pered, slight­ly prog­gy addi­tion which adds a depth to the track with­out break­ing the reverie. 

Firesta­tions are set to play on 21st Jan­u­ary in Lon­don, at Paper Dress Vintage.

The new sin­gle is out now, released as part of Lost Map’s Postmap Club Sub­scrip­tion Ser­vice. Firesta­tions are sched­uled to per­form at Paper Dress Vin­tage Lon­don, on 21st Jan­u­ary. Tick­ets avail­able here

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