The easy-going opener Eighth Avenue cruises like Belle & Sebastien freewheeling down a sunshine promenade. The warm acoustics fuel the engine while singer Amber Papini has a 60s candy smile the whole way through – talk about friendly introductions, this is good Hospitality.

What’s better is the band’s ability to change gears – from the box of sprightly pop on Friends of Friends, to the more resistant, and highly effective Julie. The latter is seemingly stuck in a rut of downer acoustics and flat-lining keys – changing the forecast once more. The whole record is ably tied together, and given an air of addictive carelessness, by Amber Papini’s sweetened, yet feisty and confident delivery.

The New York trio formed back in 2007 and have clearly been hard at it – every song here is a complex and finely tuned piece of indie-twee mastery. It’s what you imagine a band of studious, stay-after-school nerds might sound like if they tried to calculate the formula for mathematically approved pop. Though you could argue that it’s all a little too well constructed, this talented three-piece left little room for human imperfection, emotion or frailties within their pitch-perfect set.

Yet Hospitality are clearly enjoying the ride, and with the assistance of Papini’s wordy lyrics, from college afterlife on Liberal Arts to everyday occupations on Betty Wang, they have put out a very impressive debut indeed. It might even have some musical wannabe’s fingering the textbooks once more, feverishly searching out the blueprint for indie-pop perfection.

-William Bell-