Letchworth Garden City is home to some fine things including Dave’s and the Garden Brewery. Now I can add The Chickpea Darlings to that small list. Bitter Lemon is their second album and they write that it’s a “bucket of offal in the face experiences of Brexit and Trump”. The band, whose members also feature in The Spanish Armada and before that London Fields, play bedroom pop with twee and c86 inspired influences. Whilst the words may gloomy the music itself has a beauty about it none more so than on Camber Sands – I even forgive them for using a ukelele! The socialist rabble-rousing anthem that is Ugly Pop Stars gets me joining in and there is even an ode to the old and worn out Walrus exhibit at the Horniman Museum on Please Don’t Touch The Walrus Or Sit On The Iceberg. Bitter Lemon is an album that takes in misery along a healthy dose of wit but does it in an enjoyable way. Make mine a falafel!

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