Bubblegum Lemonade: Susan’s in the Sky EP

Earlier this year, Scottish wunderkid Laz (no no, just Laz) decided to do his own distortion-drenched power-pop revival, releasing a pair of EPs under the band names Bubblegum Lemonade and Strawberry Whiplash, and, as you can see, they were fun, tasty little bits of pop joy that were as disposable as they were infectious. Yet with his latest EP, Susan’s in the Sky, all his Adam Schlesinger posing can’t save what is a remarkably bland collection of tunes. With Susan, we’re getting a collection of songs that never actually are having fun: they just sound like they want to have fun, the first three songs all blurring together to sound like sun-damaged leftovers from the Jesus & Mary Chain’s poppier moments. The only moment of note is Laz’s cover of Big Star’s “Holocaust”, here truly working on the darker overtones that populated Alex Chilton’s post-#1 Record work, but, ultimately, this batch of Bubblegum has unfortunately lost its flavor.