Lemongrab’s DIY Sophomore Skronk Is Anything But Sour
Life in Berlin has made the former Montreal punks that much sweeter and I Spy With My Little Eye is proof.
by Maggie McPhee
It might sound oxymoronic to call Lemongrab’s sophomore album I Spy With My Little Eye easy-listening punk, but if punk is about subversion, then why can’t there be room for that?
Since creative partners Gaëlle Cordeaux and Leonie Dishaw moved from Montreal to Berlin in 2019, they’ve strutted through psychedelia, post-punk, and straight-up old fashioned punk, picking up pieces and players along the way. ISWMLI is a haphazard collage of those shards, rough around the edges, epoxied with a thick layer of lo-fi goodness, and tied up with an ironic pink bow. Humour and earworm guitar melodies abound in equal measure.
Compared to their 2019 debut, It Doesn’t Sound Good but it Feels Awesome, the easy breezy lemon squeezy punk act’s sound has cleaned up for the better, without losing any DIY charm. Cordeau’s shape shifting vocals dip into raspy talk-singing, swerve into throat-frying screams, and skip into a high-pitched lilt, meeting each musical moment at the sweet spot. The band’s recording process is quick and dirty, and that energy comes through each track, which is sure to translate even more seamlessly to their notoriously epic live shows.
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