Release date: November 8, 2024
1. She Comes In Rainbows
2. Someone Made You Sad
3. Love's Young Nightmare
4. From Her To Paternity
5. Out There On The Radio
6. There Will Be Another
7. Never Have I Ever
8. The Sweetest Reverie
9. Saturday Child
10. Renewal Of All Things
11. To Leave Is To Die A Little
12. You'll Know The Angels
The highly anticipated sixth album from prolific Scottish indiepop heroes Bubblegum Lemonade is called ‘Lawrence of Suburbia’ and demonstrates a step up in both songwriting and performance, while still retaining their well established Brill Building pop sensibilities. Combining jangly and psychedelic songs, and peppered with lovely backing vocals from Sandra of fellow Scottish janglers Strawberry Whiplash, the collection is carefully structured and a great listen from start to finish.
The album blasts off with ‘She Comes in Rainbows’, an effervescent Television Personalities-inspired celebration of the more colorful characters in our daily life, and ‘Someone Made You Sad’, a slower track with prominent use of backwards guitar, a catchy melodica motif, and a Madchester feel to the chorus.
'Love's Young Nightmare'—one of three singles pulled from the album—is an instantly lovable indie disco floor filler with a brilliant but simple monster guitar riff, while ‘From Her To Paternity’ is a poignant and reflective song with jangling 12-string guitar, Byrds harmonies, and arguably the album’s best song title.
‘Out There on the Radio’ is the second single from the album—a jangleadelic slice of radio-friendly guitar pop which recalls the Primal Scream off-shoot Spirea-X for anyone of a certain age, and ‘There Will Be Another’, a positive, reassuring song with an anthemic chorus and a baggy beat created through a combination of bongos and wah-wah guitars.
Kicking off side two of the album is the brilliant single ‘Never Have I Ever’, an especially infectious radio-friendly hit with clever lyrics, tambourine, keyboards, and jangling guitars. The Velvets inspired ‘The Sweetest Reverie’ (Laz’ favourite on the album) is the sound of hazy sunlight on a spring morning and provides more jangling guitars, a skipping drum beat, and some nice glockenspiel interaction.
‘Saturday’s Child’ juxtaposes a song about slowing down when we get older with a catchy Motown drum beat, a searing wah guitar solo, and EDM-inspired frequency filtering techniques on the backing track, while ‘Renewal Of All Things’ repurposes a Biblical phrase to refer to renewable energy production before building to a strong Velvets-inspired musical climax.
‘To Leave Is To Die A Little’ is an instantly loveable song featuring an uplifting double-tracked slide guitar intro, a punchy stop/start chorus, Orange Juice-inspired guitars, heavily distorted hi-hats, and a 1970s Disco groove before reaching its strong sing-along ending. The album concludes with ‘You’ll Know The Angels’, a slower song reflecting on one’s mortality and featuring slide guitars, a bongo beat, and Laz’ sister, Mary Kate, singing the haunting coda.
At times joyful, positive, poignant, and reflective, ‘Lawrence of Suburbia’ is an essential addition to the Bubblegum Lemonade catalog and perhaps the best album so far from the artist.
