Glasgow quintet French Wives have been gathering a quiet momentum since they formed back in 2008. That time has seen them accrue a well-received flurry of singles and a solid local fan base which fully expects them to achieve wider success with the release of their debut album. That is a stage at which so many promising artists before them have fallen but Dream of the Inbetween is a very promising, if slightly flawed, introduction.

There’s no denying that they have gathered a collection of solid well-crafted indiepop, which is easily accessible without ever lapsing into formulaic blandness. As for points of reference, the songs sit somewhere further along the Scottish lineage occupied by the likes of Ballboy, Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura. On first listen it all seems quite happy-go-lucky, but further listens uncover a darker heart and a depth of emotion which both encourage and reward further attention.

The band spend a lot of time tapping into that rich vein of discontent which runs through a large swathe of Scottish indie, particularly those bands mentioned, and that accounts for a large portion of Stuart Dougan’s lyrical content. Whether it’s bemoaning his body’s own self sabotage in ‘Me Vs Me’ with lines like “Lately my skin crawls for no reason at all/I think my body’s given up on me” or a lack of life progress, in lead single ‘Younger’. This pervasive frustration is usefully tempered with high tempo tunes though, and particularly the spritely violin which gives the whole affair a light pop feel.

Previous single ‘Halloween’ steals the show with a story of an All Hallows Eve romance and ensuing obsession set against a backdrop of weathered strings building to a rousing finale ,without feeling overtly emotionally manipulative. The band does this much well, as they repeatedly craft big moments through subtle escalations and entwining of verses, with it working almost as well on ‘Younger’ and ‘A Month of Sundays’ too. There are definite weak links, though, like ‘Numbers’ and ‘Back Breaker’, which follow a similar kind of pattern a little too closely, and whose production sucks further life from them. It is perhaps the most distinctive track which makes the strongest impression in the form of the taut unpolished screech of ‘Sleep Tight’, its roughness becoming a very attractive feature in the album’s context.

An interesting slow track ‘The Sickness’ closes things out and offers a sense of optimistic respite as Dougan sings “We will smoke to the end, we’ll burn out and start again”. Hopefully they will keep going: French Wives undoubtedly have enough of a handle on a good hook and a bit of character to potentially craft a very good album in the future. Even for the few tracks that they get 100% right now, Dream of the Inbetween is well worth investigating.