Save for the album title, Destination Unknown (Solar Flare Records), from the French Alternative Rock outfit Watertank, is a focused and honed full-length, featuring memorable riffs and emotive harmonies that resonate long after album’s end.

Destination Unknown is the nine-song follow-up to the Nantes-based band’s 2013 debut, Sleepwalk. Clocking in under forty minutes, Destination Unknown takes to typical Alt-Rock tenants with ease: melodic riffs, anchored by pummeling percussion, deliver the band’s brand of all-purpose “heavy” through down-turned guitars, pristine production quality, and thoughtful songwriting.

Opening track ‘Automatic Reset,’ introduces Watertank’s sonic signature in big refrains and assertive vocals, as second track, ‘Fever,’ plays as a Foo Fighters-style, chord-driven anthem. Favorite track, ‘Contrails,’ calls up post-90s riff Rock ala Verve Pipe or Jawbox, and Watertank is expert in mingling precision and fuzz for the era-reminiscent sound.

‘DCVR’ follows with heart-bending notes, and the ‘Last Lost Hope’ is the album’s most sentimental and melancholically sweet. Watertank conjures up considerate melodies on ‘Surrender,’ which truly reign and ring on ‘Doomed Drifters’ and ‘Scheme,’ which deepen in the songs’ overall soft skin.

Closing track, ‘Destination Unknown,’ quiets the album to a close, and reflects and rests upon the album’s steady, consistent hearth.

Destination Unknown soars in equal insouciance and solidity, and each track composes a harmonious sum that is overall enjoyable and moving.

6.0/10

LINDSAY O’CONNOR