Lemon Pitch - Flat Black Sea - LP (2020)

Labels: Repeating Cloud
Review by: MH

The last thing I reviewed on here was by Neilson Family from Portland, Oregon. This time it’s Lemon Pitch from Portland, Maine. Good job I checked that before posting as I would’ve told you they were from the same place otherwise. Anyway, Lemon Pitch play indie rock as opposed to (not actually local Portland band) Neilson Family’s more relaxed indie pop and there is some fuzz, heft and crunch to the guitar sound. I’d say that the emphasis in the indie rock is firmly on the ROCK side. Otherwise, they pretty much straddle a few other genres and are lyrically pretty busy, personal and often quirky. It’s also quite a diverse record with 3 of the 4 band members writing the songs – a couple of tracks are flat-out punk rock and things get more rowdy – “The Kind of Band That Wears Hats” even has me thinking of Sultans of Ping. Maybe I’ve been watching too much “Young Offenders” and have them on the brain. “More Bad News” is ever so slightly Pavement-y in the vocals in particular and you can hear quite a few 90s influences coming through across the twelve tracks.