Love can lead us anywhere. Norman Blake of Scottish indie heavyweights Teenage Fanclub followed his girlfriend to Ontario from Glasgow a few years ago. After settling down he bumped into an old pal who had recently made the same romantic-minded flitting from Massachusetts, Joe Pernice of The Pernice Brothers, fellow purveyors of Big Star-worshipping power-pop. After sitting in on a few of Pernice’s solo shows, the two comrades hatched a plan to start a fully-fledged new project together. Thus, The New Mendicants began. Following the release of a teaser E.P, last summer’s ‘Australia 2013’, the guys have finally cooked up a full-length. ‘Into The Lime’ is an endearing 10-song affair, offering precisely what you’d expect from these two veterans, with a few surprises to be found.
The majority of the album’s tracks fall into the category of genteel, mid-paced Byrds-ian pop although, in fairness, it’s doubtful that anybody familiar with either party’s previous endeavours would have been awaiting an album of abstract noise or experimental ghetto house. The guitars jangle and chime politely, the drums are never struck too hard and although the lyrics can be acerbic, as on lead single ‘A Very Sorry Christmas’, the whole thing is soundly sweet. Fret not, for there’s nothing saccharine or childlike here.
On ‘Shouting Match’, an astute observation of domestic disruption with an impeccable earworm of an intro, the fuzz pedal gets dusted off and turned up gently for a power-pop workout. ‘Cruel Annette’, about a vindictive girl playing two friends off one another for her affections, borders on doo-wop. Its barbershop intro is one of the album’s most arresting moments. Peculiar closer ‘Lifelike Hair’ hints at another side of The New Mendicants, all droning hammond organ, deranged background howling and dead-eyed Velvets swagger. Its positioning at the end of the album is perfect, a last minute freak-out that could have sounded jarring in the middle of the tracklisting but ends proceedings on a gloriously odd note.
Although it breaks little new ground and in all likelihood won’t convert any non-believers, ‘Into The Lime’ proves that, after all these years, both Blake and Pernice’s songwriting chops have never left. We should be glad their their hearts led them to the same place.