Lemonade Sin – Glad Game (2023)
Since our last glimpse of Lemonade Sin (at least review-wise), songwriting duo Lee Friese-Greene and Simon Aldous have released several singles and their debut album Anagrams, all to critical acclaim. Long-time friends, the UK-based pair began their songwriting endeavour in 2016 and made their well-received debut online in 2019 with Fairground Distraction. With an ever-changing style, Aldous and Friese-Greene wander from grunge to pop, folk and indie-rock – and all evident in the 2022 Anagrams. The latest addition to their genre-diverse discography is the single ‘Glad Game’.
If you were to listen to Lemonade Sin’s repertoire, you would see (or rather hear) a constant evolution in their sound. Not exactly genre-wise (I mean, they flit from one style to another) but rather the overall production and sonic landscape. In 2019, Fairground Distraction presented a rough, off-the-cuff, rawness to the tracks; however, when we jump forward to Anagrams, there is a growth in sophistication and innovation. Recorded and mixed with Lucy Board and Matt Board at Penquit Mill Studio, ‘Glad Game’ has a mature elegance at its core but with a deliberately rugged naivety veiling the polished production.
Upbeat and toe-tapping, ‘Glad Game’ combines the nostalgic flair of 80s synth-pop with a modern-day indie-pop. From the outset, jangle-pop guitars rush forward building a head-bopping, smile-inducing bubbliness ala The Beatles. Continuing throughout the melody, the charm and constant “bubble-gum joviality” exists in a poppy river. Add Matt Board’s twinkling keyboards and there is a shimmer to the “poppy river”. Interestingly, while ‘Glad Game’ can fit effortlessly alongside The Monkees’ ‘Daydream Believer’, a hint of indie-rock grit belies the flowery optimism hinting at some darker undercurrents driven through Jennifer Denitto’s drums and Charlotte Beale’s bass.
As with the flower-power songs of the 60s and 70s, ‘Glad Game’ has the psychedelic mystique and intoxicating wave of heavenly fluffiness. Moreover, the similar flower-power joy hides the expression of frustration, anger and irritation in an overindulgent crash of sound. Lyrically, ‘Glad Game’ is “an expression of irritation at people who are undiscerningly positive about everything” – I’m sure we have all encountered at least one person like this. This angsty exasperation at overly optimistic people lies beneath with grungy stylings, while the buoyancy of optimism blares at the surface.
For more from Lemonade Sin, check out their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
