A brilliant debut EP, with melodies and arrangements that are as well-worn and familiar as a favorite shirt.
That title – weight of connotation notwithstanding – is no slight. Quite the opposite. The maiden EP from Sugarlimes (‘Best Served Cold,’ out today) is middling but only in the best possible manner. The melodies and arrangements are well-worn and familiar, like a favorite shirt. They’re a comfortable fit; they don’t hug your body too tight; and they’re the right degree of tattered, which is to say, with punctures and pinpricks on the fabric that serve as airy reprieve.
To take another tack, if the songs on this ridiculously singable, earworm-inducing EP were like refreshments, they’d be the agreeable kind, the no-brainer, the go-to variety…but cooler. Purportedly a compendium of different kinds of love – “hopeful, shameful, hurtful” – the first collection by Mike Lozarito and Markgen Abella (both singer-guitarists, though the former takes a chunk of the byline pie) is a joy to listen to from start to finish.
We’ve already had an itty-bitty taste from two advance singles released across 2024 and 2025, but taking them all in as longform – OK, that’s maybe a misnomer for a six-track EP – puts all tunes in perspective, like they’re part of a larger tapestry weaned on The Beatles, Oasis, and, quite palpably so, Orange & Lemons.
I did a song-by-song, which I rarely do, but this compact collection kind of calls for it.
Just Like You
There’s a jubilation and sprightliness reminiscent of The Wannadies here, with a persona that pins his entire being on the approval of the one he’s pining for. A real walking-on-sunshine banger.
Prairie Sky
To paraphrase Harlan Howard, it’s all about four chords and the truth. The song is as much a mood as it is a picture, and what better gift to a beloved addressee as these – a mood, a picture – because people need them in these unthinking, unfeeling scroll-through times. It sounds resigned, sure, but there’s also a frantic relish for life. An interesting compendium of jangle, arpeggio, and sing-song riffing.
What a Surprise
What a joy to revisit this ditty about a young love that has suffered yet persevered, one that’s obviously weaned on Orange&Lemons and all manner of Britpop guitar stylings. The band wears these influences as badges, though: loud, proud, canonical but not hysterically so.
Okay Lang Ba
An unmistakable doo-wop sensibility, irresistible because it’s basically a fluffy, familiar pop-music pillow. So many have tried their hand at this period idiom (among them Sugarlimes heroes O&L) and always, always, the deal-closer is the earnest resolve. There is much of that in “Okay Lang Ba.” The plaintive wailing alone makes it worthy of a spin (or five).
No Other Way
I thought it was pretty when it was first put out; now I think it’s heartbreaking. Huge difference.
Gugma Ko
Wide-eyed indie pop sung in Bisaya? Sold.
Ipagpapatuloy
Melody like candy, tragedy like a malady. So much can be done within the bounds of a seeming template. “Kaht ka’y sakit at pait, ‘di magagalit.” Tasty micro-rhymes. I hope they keep churning stuff in the mother tongue, because it just collars you in an entirely organic way.
Stream ‘Best Served Cold’ today.