Mirrors - Lights & Offerings

Mirrors have done their research. Every facet of this band capitalises on the reignited interest in eighties electro pop, with the sharp-eared sensibility of The Human League, the deadpan solemnity of Depeche Mode, the melodrama of Pet Shop Boys, hell, they’ve even appropriated Kraftwerk’s sartorial decisions. It’s this well-chosen combination of influences (although this reviewer isn’t sure influence is quite strong enough of a term here) that marks the constant struggle to appraise Mirrors – can a band that’s so totally unoriginal be truly considered artistically successful?

There’s no doubt that ‘Lights and Offerings’ is a catchy album - ‘Look At Me’ is a perfectly-crafted synth anthem that could easily grace any after-hours indie dancefloor – nor could you question its authenticity with songs as dead-on as ‘Ways to an End’, with its “1, 2, 3, 4, 5” chorus and spoken-word breakdown. But, as with any authentic copy of what’s gone past, the album is positively bursting with cliché. Lyrics with the detached pomposity of “These people want what these people cannot see” sound laughably contrived and ten-minute album closer ‘Secrets’ sounds like a Terminator-esque synth soundtrack at times. After a while, it begins to sound like Flight of the Conchords’ incredible electro mockery ’Inner City Pressure’ could have been a preemptive strike.

Listening to ‘Lights and Offerings’ eventually forces you to make a decision. Can you sideline your own feelings of distrust in how this album was made and simply enjoy fifty minutes of electronic grandeur not seen this side of ‘Dare’, or will it all prove too much of a pastiche? It’s a question that’s hard to answer, and should perhaps never have to be posed; it’s a fairly major downfall. However, in a era where lazy rehashes of eighties electro-pop are all too common, perhaps a group that goes the whole hog and simply copies what came before is precisely what we need.