Value Void have crafted an excellent album entirely on their own terms

Their new record, Sentimental, is bursting with retro alt-rock signifiers. The guitars are often droning and rattling. The bass is thick and punchy. The drums alternate between hushed and cacophonous. And the vocals switch from angelic to mock-ditzy.

The three people that make up Value Void are undoubtedly master craftspeople. These songs are, despite their deliberately lo-fi DIY ‘feel’ (remember that acts as polished as The Chainsmokers are ‘DIY’), elegant, somewhat pretty and masterfully well-constructed. This is where the truffle-pigs of pretence, the pretentious police, would smell a rat – it sounds like it cost pennies to produce but sounds a million dollars because of it.

None of this really matters, because the record is strong because there are great songs here. There are sounds that evoke everybody from Blur to the Velvet Underground to the Breeders. Depending on how modern your tastes are, you might hear Grouper or The Pretenders at points. Or you might hear both. You’ll definitely hear St. Vincent and Julianna Barwick. Maybe.

A great example of Value Void’s universally-appreciable sound is “Cupid’s Bow”. It’s a swooning, buzzy number that sounds like Throwing Muses at their most introspective. The powerful simplicity of the track is bolstered by the fact that there are only three members in the band. There’s space here. There’s time. Bassist Luke Tristram picks up a lot of the rhythmic work – he ploughs a deep furrow for vocalist Paz Maddio to drop her shards of strummed guitar into.

“Babeland” is freakishly similar to early St. Vincent – there're points where Maddio sounds like Annie Clark’s twin. It’s a standout. The bummer alt-rock of “Mind” makes for another standout track – it’s low-key, downbeat and glum. However, the beauty of the track is that it seems to unfold like cardboard origami, and before you know it, you’re seduced.

“The Deluge”, “Teen for Him” and “Dead Ladies Lament” are all different cities in the same sugar-rush, neon-lit world. The latter is delicate dream-pop, the former intense and angular alt-rock that evokes Sonic Youth at their most sinister. All different, all cohesive. “Teen for Him” is probably the best thing here.

This is an unusually strong year for bands that are labelled ‘post-punk’. It’s an even more unusually strong year for bands that seek to drop the label they’re given and do what suits them. Value Void never, ever, seem like they’re not doing exactly what they like. It just helps that they’re good at it.