Popular music is a game of phases; it meanders like a sine wave between underground and overground, between fashion and old news. A few days ago the BBC were compelled to report that ‘rock anthems were vanishing from the charts’ with the news that only 5 of the 100 best-selling singles of the year were classed as rock, and one of those was by Pendulum. Bad news for guitar bands? Not at all. Now is the perfect time to sharpen the axes, write the songs, replace the old shoes and pull up from the darkness.

Lurking in this mist waits the unsigned Lightning Strikes The Empire State (LSTES), sending up a distress flare in the shape of their E.P Overnight Lows, which is a curiosity well worth £1.99 of your earned pennies. Their sound is a blend of recognizably hip and agile new wave influences, but it is soiled with library book dust and English ale, with a hint of everyday bitterness.

Opener Happy Slaves has a Strokes-style tropicana that rolls like splashy polynesian waves, with singer James – a kind of middle management Morrissey – declaring ‘it isn’t the worst, and it isn’t the best but it’s a life’, speaking for all the semi-suited trying to make sense of their working life. Sharp Sticks sounds a little like a haunted house ride with its outbreaks of sudden laughter and its mock-gloom. It is a shame that its main riff is a little tired and straight in comparison.

There is much confusion to be found in Tie Yourself To Me Tonight. James begins in whispery and wistful mood, but as chopping guitars enter the mood is broken and the song becomes difficult to navigate. A pretty breakdown of chiming midnight guitars is the highlight and there is a beautiful symphonic ballad hidden somewhere beneath the arrangement. Perhaps they will find it one day? You First is a more finished affair and has a danceable !!! groove sandwiched between it’s marching verses. And although it’s definitely a little ragged in places, the cross-fingered vocal hook is catchy enough to make this unimportant.

It’s a fairly pleasant journey to the last track, but it’s on Daylight Saving when the band really make their claim for your ears, your air bass, your singalong voice and your precious time. Magazine, Futureheads and even a touch of ABBA all are put into this 5 minute mixture, and they mix very very well. Download it, enjoy it, tell your friends about it; rarely do unsigned bands release something as good as this.

Purchase Overnight Lows at LSTES’s Bandcamp.