A charming ditty about a young love that has persevered, penned by a no-BS tunesmith who’s obviously weaned on Orange & Lemons and all manner of Britpop guitar stylings.
Criticism is ironic. It’s predisposed to applaud complexity and chastise simplicity. But if you think about it, “greatness” is excess baggage. I mean, the works that ultimately stay with us are those that went down easy the first time. Wouldn’t it be great if the lone metric we had was our (literal) knee jerk at things, i.e., the ability of art to jerk us from the catatonia of furrowed-brow consideration? If all songwriters concerned themselves with dissonant chord changes and left-of field time shifts, the world would be smarter, sure, but less people would be dancing or singing along. And I don’t know if that’s the kind of world I want to wake up to.
Which is why, faced with buoyant (though not strictly lightweight) material like Sugarlimes’ new Lilystars single “What a Surprise,” I take off the humorless critic’s hat and let simple joys envelope whatever’s left of me to be enveloped (I am dangerously close to imperviousness to such stimuli). But you know what? “What a Surprise” is perfect for that very endeavor (i.e., enveloping): a sprightly, sing-song melodicism; a jitter-free jangle that jiggles; a lilting innocence that lifts the spirits. It’s a charming ditty about a young love that has persevered, penned by a no-BS tunesmith who’s obviously weaned on Orange and Lemons and all manner of Britpop guitar stylings.
Written by singer-guitarist Mike Lozarito as a slice of autobiography, “What a Surprise” traces his beginnings—as a despondent, not-so-sociable loner who can’t talk to girls—to his eventual pivot: as a despondent, not-so-sociable loner who can’t talk to girls…who has met the right girl to take the edge off. That kind of backstory is unassailable, and though you don’t need it to hoist your enjoyment of indie pop tunes, hearing about it
“Mike recorded demos but never properly recorded it back then,” the band shares in an advance release, adding that while the song was written in 2015, it only came into fruition as a full master track in 2021, when Mike met Markgen Abella, a fellow singer-songwriter and producer. Incidentally, the band also describes the track—and I beg your indulgence to revert to my mini-treatise in the intro about “[applauding] complexity and [chastising] simplicity”—as “fresh, sweet, and positive,” further insisting that that’s what their music “is all about.”
“We’re aiming for that feeling,” they say, adding that “we all deserve [it].”
And let me tell you something, I will put some money on it, too. “What a Surprise” doesn’t make you discuss world politics or textbook-variety art, but it makes you crack into a smile and want to reach for your phone to profess your love something silly, or better yet, jump on your feet to interrupt that hapless girl during her lunch break and propose.
“What a Surprise” is out today. You know the drill.