We’ve been deceived by Mirrors. This Brighton quartet’s debut is nothing more than trickery and sleight of hand. Despite the illusion of being 80s electro-pop aficionados, the intro to Lights and Offerings first track, ‘Fear of Drowning,’ sounds nothing more than a parody The Who’s Baba O’Riley. All the crisp grey suits and cropped haircuts count for nothing, if all were given is prog rock from your dad’s old dusty vinyl. At over six minutes it’s almost as long a Rick Wakeman solo and just as tiresome. Then it sinks further. ‘Look At Me’ could easily be peddled as the (pet shop) boy band Hurts.

When things reach so low on a debut it’s usually a sign of being destined for the Woolworths bargain basket, (ask your dad, Skins fans). However, they suddenly pull a rabbit form the hat with ‘Into the Heart’, a Masked Magician revelation on how to craft electronica, and we are finally given a glimpse into Mirrors’ potential. It has OMD’s Electricity pulsing through it, with dancing melodies and sparse, precision placed beats. It’s perfectly engineered pop, designed as if to play an integral part in a finely tuned engine. ‘Write Through the Night’ is an epic vocal filled pop song of Talk Talk proportions with Vince Clarke production.

There is certainly no illusion anymore. The 80s is firmly at Lights and Offerings core and, Le Tigre and !!! engineer, Jonathon Kreinik’s mixing ensures it ticks all the right boxes, their influences glaringly obvious. Yet whereas contemporaries Delphic and to a degree The Drums will refine the pioneering synth-pop of New Order and OMD, and drag it up to date, Lights and Offerings is reluctant to acknowledge anything after 1984. Lights and Offerings soon turns into a sedentary affair; the stand out track from the rest of the album being ‘Searching for the Wilderness,which starts like Thomas Dolby’s Europa and the Pirate Twins before turning in to Dave Gahan singing karaoke to the Knightrider theme.

Mirrors call what they do Pop Noir, and have obviously studied at the school of how to be angular and moody, which would be fine if they delivered something profound, but their lyrics are more sixth form poetry than avant-garde mystery: – “Be sad if you’re feeling sad/ but don’t play glad if you’re feeling sad” - ‘Hide and Seek’. It’s as if they have a school boy crush but they don’t want to make their feelings obvious: They really want to be holding hands with OMD’s Andy McClusky but go and pull Ultravox’s pigtails instead. They need to grow and be a bit more confident. Lights and Offerings closer, ‘Secrets,’ could be a great tribute to Kraftwerk but is spoilt by the need to flirt with the pop of Erasure.

As a homage to poppy 80s new wave shows they know what they’re talking about, but I fear their forthcoming tour with Gary Numan and John Foxx will expose them as mere pretenders to what was once great and ground breaking. There is the scent of synth-pop revivalism in the air but it isn’t diffusing from Lights and Offerings. The only place to hang Mirrors is between Hurts and White Lies, and do we really want to be seen anywhere near that place?