Lemonade - Self-titled Album Review

Review of Lemonade's self-titled album

I often think that you have to be in the right mood to appreciate electronica. Fischerspooner's #1 ranks among my favourite albums with ease, the songwriting is simply superb, but if I'm not in the right mood no sooner has the jet engine at the start of Invisible fired up that the CD is turned off. It's also very difficult to carry the energy all the way through a dance album so that it stands up to repeated listens. Shy FX and T-Power's Set It Off provides us with enough variation and powerful hooks that once the album ends, you can put it straight on again.

Lemonade have gone for the indie-tinged approach to electronica, recorded and mixed by Chris Coady- who previously worked with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, !!! and TV on the Radio. The back of the promo album reels off a list of genres as long as my arm (I have very long arms) and I have to say I felt distinct doubt as I put the CD in and pressed play. I shouldn't have worried, because after the slight misstep of the opener Big Weekend, the other 5 tracks all provide the magic combination of good songwriting and plenty of variation. The list of genres may have been a bit of an overstatement (dancehall, drone, dubstep in alphabetical order) but it's true that a hell of a lot is drawn from here- I especially like the Arabic leaning some of the tracks, especially Nasifon, have. I'm quite excited now, so I'm going to go and listen to the CD again and have a little dance around.

Conrad Hughes