It’s a testament to the stamina and athleticism of emerging bands that their fans usually have to wait two or three years post-“breakthrough” for their debut full-length to be released, primarily because the band itself is simply far too busy burning tracks up and down this sceptered isle and further afield on relentless touring schedules that rival Hannibal and Alexander the Great’s winter and summer tours respectively.
What this preamble is supposed to underline is how much we should celebrate the debut full-lengths of our emerging bands with great pomp and applause, given how tortuous and drawn out this process of emergence has become. To that end, and without any further ado, hooray – One More Thing, the debut album from celebrated Brighton indie rockers Lime Garden is due in February and there’s a new single ‘Love Song’ to tide us over.
With echoes of ‘Echoes’ by The Rapture, fitful guitars scratch out a ragged frame for the centre pairing of synth and spacious vocals of a certain most-likely-patented-by-now Lime Garden variety. The band has impeccable form in the very important area of ‘guest spot given to synth of some description’ – on ‘Nepotism (baby)’ it was an impossibly watery vibraphone situation, on ‘Marbles’ it was a huge 2010s EDM pad, et cetera – and on ‘Love Song’ it’s an at times jittery, at times smoothly hypnotic pulsing kind of thing that does wonders in topping up the track’s energy, urgency and momentum.
Rattling underneath like the clickety-clack of a train are some curiously delicate hats, almost (but not quite) mismatched with a muscular, stomping kick-snare. This, of course, imbues the track with the unshakeable and not unprecedented “dancey feeling” prevalent in spades across previous singles – look toward the rollicking ‘Clockwork’ and unruly ‘Pulp’ if for some reason you need convincing – but here it’s more of a consistent wash rather than the bursts of colour and movement the above two tracks stitch between their more muted sections.
Lime Garden focuses ‘Love Song’ inward, using it as a prism of self-love. There’s a lot here lyrically extolling the messy virtues of the complicated human soul, on taking the whole picture in aggregate rather than separating elements to celebrate or denigrate – in the words of vocalist Chloe Howard, “jumping into joy and love even when you feel you are not worthy of it”. It’s fitting then that the band attributes the song’s emergence to their attempts to tease an ‘upbeat song’ from a ‘downward slump’.
In short, today is a good day for music – a talented and exciting band with interesting ideas has survived the formidable nightmare-difficult obstacle course laid in front of them by the modern music landscape to issue the tantalising prospect of a debut LP for us to sink our teeth into – and in the form of a cracking outriding single to boot. A good day indeed.
Words: Ed Hambly // Photo: Jono White
Lime Garden release their debut album, ‘One More Thing’, on February 16th 2024 via So Young Records. Pre-order the record and stream their previous singles via Bandcamp.