“September girls do so much,” goes the opening line on the Big Star classic, and the same could be said of the Irish five-piece taking their name from the song (via The Bangles). On their debut album, Cursing the Sea (Fortuna Pop), the September Girls mix-and-match a host of influences (The Bangles, but maybe not so much Big Star, among them) to create an album seemingly out of time. Not only do they recall contemporary girl bands (namely the Dum Dum Girls), but one can hear girls past from the Shirelles to We’ve Got a Fuzzbox and We’re Going to Use It to Lush and beyond.

More than just a sense of déjà vu, though, what is unsettling about this record is what is emitted from its grooves. A mix of cool detachment and darkened emotions, these 11 songs seem almost overheard rather than heard directly. The album’s thick gauze of reverb and echo contributes to this sensation, but the obfuscation is more than that. Each track seems to come from just beyond the beyond, where the specters of those influences most likely dwell as well. The effect is mesmerizing and leaves one straining to try to make out each note and utterance, as if they will unlock the record’s great secret. But although the album is mysterious, there is no mystery to be solved. Rather, what is revealed is something all the more memorable for being enigmatic.