The Hollow Frames sharpen their edges on “Static Bloom”

The Hollow Frames have been kicking around the British alt-rock circuit long enough that you could be forgiven for not noticing they have quietly leveled up. “Static Bloom” is the EP that ends the apprenticeship.

From the opening track, “Parade of Doors,” the band is locked into something specific. The rhythm section is dry and forward in the mix, the guitars are doing actual counterpoint instead of stacking the same riff three times, and the vocal performance is finally pitched somewhere between a shout and a confession instead of trying to be both at once.

“Kitchen Light” is the standout. It moves like a song that was written in a room with a band in it, not in a laptop with a click track. The bridge fights itself and wins.

What still needs work: the lyrics occasionally fall back on rock-band autopilot — streets, nights, fires, the usual. When they get specific, they hit. When they reach for the universal, they miss.

Still, this is five tracks of a band finding its own voice in real time, and that is worth more than another tidy debut.