Review Summary: i wanna be somebody.
Lemuria have always been an interesting band to recall, because while they’ve been around for what feels like forever, and definitely had some memorable (and not so memorable) material in the past, most notably 2008’s
Get Better, they’ve always managed to stay under a lot of people’s radars outside of the scene for better or for worse. Sure, their unique vocal patterns provided for some interesting dynamics between guitarist/vocalist Sheena Ozzella and drummer/vocalist Alex Kerns, and these intricate slight changes in dynamics made for cult-indie smashes like “Pants” and “Dog” but, they didn’t offer much variation off of the cute indie rocker, or the occasionally fast punk influenced pop track. With the announcement of a secret album and a drop on Spotify for an album called
Recreational Hate appearing in the tail end of this last December, with an official release slated for February 2018, seeing what Lemuria had in store five years after 2013’s mediocre
The Distance Is So Big, and around ten since
Get Better was something that only had my interest piqued. With a sinking fanbase after years without new material, Lemuria definitely either had to spice up their formula if they wanted to keep it going for any longer, or have their previous craft mastered, and they definitely have some shit to shoot for it on 2018’s
Recreational Hate, but whether the entire record holds up to their intentions is a bit hazed in the smoke.
The main issue with what Lemuria had going on in their material before their short hiatus, was mostly that their sound was way too unchanged. Sure it was “somewhat” innovative at the time but the college indie rock meets cutesy pop punk gimmick got a bit old with repeated listens, especially as time has passed and the gimmick has been saturated to all hell thanks to all the Hop Along and p.s. eliot/Waxahatchee wannabe bands. The unfortunate case with what’s on
Recreational Hate really boils down to Lemuria not being able to craft a genuinely original or clever song due to how safe they stay in their sound for the most part. The opening track “Timber Together” already sets the stage for quite the cheaply put-together set piece, with vocals and chord patterns that sound literally stolen from Laura Stevenson’s
Sit Resist except dumbed down and majorly simplified so they don’t actually look like they stole it. The track goes nowhere and while the as-refreshing-as-melted-ice-cubes-in-your-three-hour-old-diet-pepsi follow up “Sliver of Change” provides for a decent enough amount of fun to keep interest, but the record struggles up and down with personality issues to even keep
itself interested with this record. Everything wrong with
Recreational Hate isn’t necessarily based on the record being awful by any means, in fact at times it’s quite the pleasant and softly unassuming indie rock record at times, but if I hadn’t heard the same pleasant and softly unassuming indie rock record about 35-40 other times done better by other bands since 2008’s
Get Better, maybe this record wouldn’t feel like a bunch of anxiously reserved and watered down Superchunk covers.
