Having released singles ‘Ankle Deep’ and ‘Easy Love’ in 2017, fans of The Jim Mitchells have been eagerly awaiting their debut album.

Now, it’s arrived in the form of Love Hypnotic. Kicking off the eight-track release is ‘(Let Them All In),’ a collage of jangly guitars, 60s flavoured leads and airy vocals that sounds like it could easily slide onto a Magical Mystery Tour b-sides album. It sets the scene for the rest of the tunes and establishes the expansion of the up-tempo garage-psychedelia of 2016’s Planet Absorbed.

It’s refreshing to hear a band (especially one with three guitarists) make the decision to emphasise the raw simplicity and skill of their songwriting. It feels like these songs would work if they were stripped back with only acoustic guitar and vocals, and the group is clearly conscious of letting lead singer Jim Mitchell’s voice guide listeners in and around the subtle textures of the musical landscape they have created.

There’s moments on the LP where we can hear flashes of 60s/70s British groups like The Birds and Village Green Preservation Society-era Kinks as The Jim Mitchells take things up a gear in tempo on tunes like ‘Got To Believe’ and ‘Ankle Deep.’ While these tracks are inescapably catchy numbers in their own right, it feels like their function is to underline the immersive nature of slower standouts like ‘Easy Love’ and ‘(…She’s Why)’ and act as a signpost for those of us lost in harmonic meditation.

Lyrically there’s a melancholy, dreamlike vibe going on with Mitchell’s wading through the ups and downs of obsessive love, often portraying himself as the inconsequential follower/victim of his emotions. It moulds nicely with the music and encapsulates the sentiment of the aptly titled record: You’re going along for the ride and you don’t even realise.

On the whole it’s an ambitous and ultimately triumphant sonic journey that drawns you under its spell from the first strums and resonates with you long after the last track fades out.

Be sure to catch The Jim Mitchells on their huge national tour which kicks off with a slot at Mountain Sounds Festival this weekend, and give Love Hypnotic a few spins before you do. Tickets and info here.