Menace Beach: Surf's Down!

Review from LemonWire

Despite their name, Menace Beach hail from Leeds in the landlocked north of England, but do manage to invoke some feelings of peril on their excellent sophomore album, “Lemon Memory.”

Built around core members Ryan Needham and Liza Violet, Menace Beach carve out edgy indie rock fueled by distorted guitars, post-punk attitude and post-modern malaise, infused with a sure melodic sense. The duo’s alternating vocals make the elixir even more potent.

Needham and Violet go in for dark subject matter but pop smarts are always lurking just below the surface, and they’re not afraid of kitschy song titles like “Can’t Get a Haircut,” even if the track itself is grinding and, yes, menacing.

Needham gets right to the point on the album opener, “Give Blood,” diving headlong into a monster riff and snarling lyrics like,

“Why'd you wanna sing about dead
Why'd you wanna sing about dead
Don't wanna sing about life”

But Violet offers some backing vocal contrast, and Needham adds a melodic chorus. That same memorable balance of elements finds its way into the disc’s nine other tracks. There’s a good deal of ‘90s Alt-Rock influences, too, but Menace Beach know the good from the bad and it never gets ugly.

“Lemon Memory” crams in plenty of buzzsaw guitar and occasional organ flourishes that are used to good effect on such tracks as the driving “Sentimental,” the Pixies-like pop confection “Watch Me Boil” and the title cut.

Violet’s plaintive singing is front and center on the churning “Maybe We’ll Drown” (see accompanying minimalist video). She offers heavenly vocals not far removed from Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser on “Owl” and album closer “Hexbreaker II,” a shoegaze-y drone where the effect is downright blissful.

There’s not a bum track to be found. Menace Beach never over stay their welcome and occasionally leave you wishing the song was a little longer. It’s still early in the game, but don’t be surprised if “Lemon Memory” finds its way onto some year-end “Best Of” lists.