Stagnant Pools are a two-piece band from Bloomington, Indiana. Such is my geographic ignorance that I picture this place like the Old West; sweaty cowboy-hatted men with toothpicks hanging nonchalantly out of their mouths. This is a century-old image so I conducted a brief, educational Google search of Indiana’s contemporary history. It appears that Stagnant Pools share their musical home with roots-rock crooner John Mellencamp and infamous Van Halen member David Lee Roth. The South has most definitely moved on.

Perhaps my ignorance of Indianan culture is slightly justified after listening to Stagnant Pools’ debut album Temporary Room. Hyperactive like a New York business day, yet dreary and sluggish like a grey, congested London winter, nothing on this LP says much about the band. With influences ranging way beyond their home state, you get the sense that they are an ambitious bunch with specific influences and visions. While ambition is good, however, you need a personal stamp for it to become believable and great. And though this debut album has some coruscating moments, they are just not enough to live up to it.

Temporary Room starts with the expansive ‘Illusions’, with muted guitar work, staccato Strokes-like drums and an aquatic overcurrent. Bryan’s self-assured, monotonous vocals sound like an Americanised palimpsest of Ian Curtis. ‘Jumpsuit’ opens with “I know there’s not many places left to hide/Nothing covers bitterness left inside” in the same depressive vein as Joy Division. ‘Dead Sailor’, the brisk lead single, provides an early ’00 buffer between ’80s shoegaze influences and the band’s own imprint of atmospheric noise-rock. In an interview with Consequence of Sound, the band said they had a particular affinity for Factory and Creation Records. This won’t come as surprise after listening to Temporary Room and this wouldn’t be a problem if they had something of themselves to offer too. Aside from choice cut ‘Dead Sailor’ though, which shows some independent thought and pumps in some adrenalin, this is otherwise a copycat, dreary and drawn out debut.

Recording an entire album in one day could be seen as brave. The problem in this case is that it is glaringly obvious that the band was holed up in a studio, trapped and gasping for air when they made Temporary Room. Some pockets of fresh air, such as the emotive ‘Waveland’ only provide short-term rescue. Otherwise, imagine a spider lured into a glass bottle and forced to endure the 90-120 BPM din of a child smacking a silver spoon against the glass walls for a good 45 minutes. Yes, they make noise-rock but this noise is, at times, pretty unrelenting. ‘Maze of Graves’ is perhaps darker sounding but still as repetitive as the tracks that precede it.

Temporary Room is by no means a musical disaster. It is enjoyable when the songs are listened to as singles rather than in one solid sitting. It also bears the occasional great and brave moment. But at other times this bravery is as foolhardy as attempting to fly to space using a car. They overstep the mark, producing an album that is an amalgam of barely definable songs saying little about who Stagnant Pools are and what their own separate vision is. The album is valiant but devoid of any identity.

Listen to Temporary Room