MENACE BEACH – LEMON MEMORY

I missed this Leeds duo’s debut album ‘RATWORLD’ so came to this free from the baggage of expectation.

This ‘difficult sophomore album’ kicks off in promising fashion with some attention grabbing ragged stop start machine-gun guitar bursts that precede the vocalist’s repeated question…..’Why d’ya always sing about death?’ in a Gallagher-esque sneer which benefits from added female backing vocals that lift ‘Give Blood’ out of being mere 90’s pastiche and invest it with something approaching originality.

Which may well  sum up the album.

Enough hooky attention- grabbing tunes get you playing the age old ‘who do they sound like?’ game, which is always fun; but it’s Liza Violet’s vocals that give the duo their identity and stop them becoming just another 90’s-trolling outfit.

Travelling between psych-motorik, Beatles-sounding- mellotron for millenials, and on Suck it Out and album closer Hexbreaker II, the joyous anthemic  epic synth pop of School of Seven Bells, Menace Beach ultimately deliver an album that equals more than the sum of its parts.

MENACE BEACH

Lemon Memory

(Memphis Industries 2017)

 

 

Réagissez à cet article / Comment this article

commentaires / comments

About The Author

Collaborator - RREVERB

Gary’s been listening to music since the 60’s and has the scars to prove it. Failed dalliance’s with violins and guitars couldn’t stop him fronting the Punk band Moscow and being spat on by 2000 Welsh punks in the summer of 1977 while supporting John Peel faves The Motors at Cardiff Top Rank. He spent 15 years selling some of the finest music by some of the best musicians in the world.