Doubleplusgood Bubblegum Lemonade Artist

{|Laz McCluskey|} is a Scottish {|pop|} obsessive who carries his influences like a flag -- the C-86 gang (especially {|Tallulah Gosh|} and {|Primal Scream|}), {|the Byrds|}, {|the Rain Parade|}, {|the Jesus and Mary Chain|} and pretty much anything ... Read more

{|Laz McCluskey|} is a Scottish {|pop|} obsessive who carries his influences like a flag -- the C-86 gang (especially {|Tallulah Gosh|} and {|Primal Scream|}), {|the Byrds|}, {|the Rain Parade|}, {|the Jesus and Mary Chain|} and pretty much anything with a hook, a jangling guitar, and just enough of a melodic quirk to identify itself as indie rather than mainstream. {|McCluskey|} is the sole official member of {|Bubblegum Lemonade|} (a name he got from an obscure album by {|Cass Elliot|}), and on his first full-length album, {|Doubleplusgood|}, he delivers a dozen sweet, guitar-powered {|pop|} tunes created with the help of his Rickenbacker, a drum program, and his computer. {|McCluskey|}'s work sounds admirably warm and organic given its one-man-band genesis, and say what you want about digital technology, but this stuff sounds a whole lot better than the four-track cassette recordings every {|pop|}-minded kid was foisting upon the world back in the 1980s. Of course, in many respects {|Doubleplusgood|} isn't especially different from what your neighborhood {|Paisley Underground|} collector or {|Sarah Records|} completist might have been hawking on cassette at the local cool record store 25 years earlier, and while {|McCluskey|} lovingly honors his influences, he doesn't do much here to suggest he could ever match the level of their work. But he does have a sure hand with a melody, his guitar work is solid and concise, and there's a genuine love for the music that radiates throughout these songs; it's clear that {|McCluskey|} is doing this music for all the right reasons, and when something like {|I'll Never Be Yours,|} {|A Billion Heartbeats,|} or {|Susan's in the Sky|} comes around, it's not hard to imagine {|Bubblegum Lemonade|} having a bright future among fellow {|pop|} fanatics. ~ Mark Deming Less