Upon hearing a record for the first time it’s not uncommon to envisage the setting in which you think it would work best in. Some of the most powerful mood-shaping music can transport you there and then and consequently alter the way you go about the rest of your day. Other albums necessitate certain conditions for the sounds to flourish to full effect and leave a profound impact upon the listener. In Eternity Spin, though, we have an album that is difficult to truly pin down to make that emotional connection, which, for all its admirable qualities, leaves you with few reasons to keep coming back to hear them.

Going back a few steps, though, if I may: Pandit is the chosen artistic handle of Texan Lance Smith and Eternity Spin is his debut long player. However, he’s not a just-out-of-college bedroom recluse like we’ve come to expect. Inexplicably, Smith decided to step foot inside a studio for his first full-length release, but, perhaps, it’s no surprise having been involved in various other projects before deciding to go solo in 2009.

Last year’s self-tilted EP possessed an affecting ingenuousness – a quality which saw Pandit steer clear of being just another generic dream-pop producer who’ll help nurture you into a good night’s kip. That touching intimacy and openness is the first thing that greets you on Eternity Spin as the fragile ballad of ‘Pack Your Bags’ does its best to dispel any tension you may have built up over the course of the day. It’s a welcome left turn from Pandit but with it comes an expectation of more of the same, yet you have to wait until almost the very end to experience a similar sense of attachment. ‘Kodiak’, like the album’s opener, displays a lyrical honesty which is all too easy to relate and delivered with such earnest sincerity you begin to question why this approach hasn’t been given more gravity.

What comes in between by no means grates – you just sense it’s an opportunity lost. Smith’s breathy vocals are often not afforded the space they crave, constantly battling against a wall of beats and subsequently losing an air of poignancy. The arrangement on tracks like ‘Skivvies’ and ‘Kathryn, My Love’ feel carefully orchestrated, but there’s almost too much going onto be able to immerse yourself for the entirety.

Star Slinger makes an appearance on ‘We Reach Out’ but it is bereft of the hooks we’ve come to expect from his material, while the equally prolific Foxes in Fiction features on two-part closer ‘European Dance Theme’. Both tracks highlight a stripped back experimental approach, which suits Pandit well, but, like most of Eternity Spin, whilst being easy to appreciate they often prove frustratingly resistant to true unbridled affection.