Sounds like…

Artsy indie-pop that gets your blood pumping and your heart swelling.

The review

Mixing your favourite indie pop tropes with strong anthemic riffs and catchy moments of emotion, ‘Lemon//Lime’ is a superb return from Language Arts. The synth-heavy band bring the high drama in spades to their quirky brightness and it’s all the better for it.

Reminding me slightly of Highasakite, Language Arts feel like a rock band that puts twinkling synths in their tracks instead of guitars. Guitars are far from absent though. ‘Indestructible’ is a track with huge drums and guitar whines that could form sit in alt-rock. It’s just that the synths are centre stage.

What rings louder than this synth first approach is Language Arts’ pixie weirdness. Be this in cute bouncy vocals over warm finger guitars and skipping beats (‘Sprout’) or syllabic delivery of phrases (‘You Gotta Be Yourself’) – the vocals nail pixie quirky fun. They also suit the largely affirmational and sensory lyrics too. Musically tracks feel perky whilst being small scale too. Tracks like ‘Falling Out of View’, ‘Blood Flow and track 1 all have a vast scale to them. The synths and production ensure the tight riffs and melodies are immediate to grasp but each onwards memorably. Whilst ‘Forgotten is the dusty ballad here ‘Top of the Top’ substitutes for this with a slower sledgehammer swish pace to the track. Every tom drum has real weight and gravitas. Catchy? Yes. Emotive? Definitely.

Far grander in emotional scale than you’d first think, every time I listen to ‘Lemon//Lime’ I fall for it further and deeper. Easily one of my favourite albums of 2021 – Language Arts have shown how good indie-pop is made. This will be an album I’ll be coming back to time and again.

Recommended track: You Gotta Be Yourself

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