Winter starts out okay. The noisy keyboards and cheap drum machine of ‘Awake’ make for a suitably chilly intro to the album, before ‘Sleeping’ quickly establishes the band’s unabashed Joy Division worship. Fluorescent are hardly the first band to have aped the mopey Manchurians’ slithering bass, morose vocals and glassine production values, but they do it without the self-conscious irony or awkward posturing that generally accompanies this kind of hero worship.

‘I Found Hate on the Street’ sees the Melbourne trio turning their attentions to Depeche Mode, trading hazy guitars for cheesy synths. Vocalist Simon Castricum does an alright Dave Gahan, but the track’s electronic textures feel clumsy after the classy gloom of ‘Sleeping’. From here, things just get worse. If ‘Beat Yo’self Up’ seems to veer a little too close to Dead or Alive, the seemingly endless ‘I Heart Italo’ is a headlong plunge into dodgy Eurodisco, dragging ‘Choose Your Adventure’ along in its wake.

With its Cure-esque guitar, ‘Unfamiliar’ fares a little better, before the echo-chamber production on ‘Collapse’ sees the band return to their strengths. Fluorescent then close Winter on a mediocre note with ‘Do You Like to Fight?’, another Depeche Mode tribute that suffers from being overlong and meandering.

While Winter shows that Fluorescent are not a band without merit, the hits-to-misses ratio is far too skewed in the wrong direction, with the group’s boundless affection for horrendous ‘80s dance-floor hits ultimately spoiling the record.

by Adam D Mills