'dollhouse', the self-released debut album by the New York band Slow Fiction, depicts identity as something that is both private and under scrutiny: a world that, in one way or another, is always in the spotlight. An uneasy sense of pretence runs like a thread through the eleven tracks, in which observation and introspection merge to explore the boundary between who we are in private and who we become when we are seen – by others, via the internet or by ourselves. The lyrics shift perspective, circling around small pains and the cruelties of others, in search of a kind of clarity. “Who are you when no one looks back or sees right through you?”, sings Julia Vassallo in the opener “junior year”, over an enigmatic bassline and jangling guitars building towards a catharsis. Slow Fiction’s music is driving rock that prompts reflection.