When John Lennon went into the studio to record the vocals for "Twist and Shout" he had already taken multiple throat lozenges and even gargled some milk to combat the sore throat he was suffering from at the time. The recording, a throat-shredding, rough-edged track that sounded unlike any of the band's other songs, left Lennon's throat feeling like sandpaper for weeks. At certain points the sound of Mayhaw Hoons & the Outsiders' debut album Lime Green leaves you wondering if this is a take on how The Beatles would've sounded if John Lennon had continued to indulge in a rougher vocal sound.
Hoons, who has played bass in numerous bands in Portland, OR, including The Shaky Hands and Horsefeathers, has traded being a sideman for taking centre stage as the yowling, screeching frontman of his own band. Lime Green, the first album that Hoons has released under his own name, alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Dustin Dybvig, has refreshingly minimalist production values which lead to a raw, unapologetic sound where the screeching guitars and the serrated vocals sound like they're coming from the room beside you.
The jazzy waltz of "The Swinger" sounds like it could've been a rough cut taken from a studio session in an alternate universe by everyone's favourite mop-haired Liverpudlians, while the yearning cries of "Summer's gone/ Our time's run out" on "Revenge" are surrounded by a disarmingly summery sound that's not dissimilar to Bleached.
Lime Green is a frantic, almost breathless album where the raspy vocals meld with some twinkling piano keys and untarnished guitars. There's a feverish desperation that engenders a short-lived vitality by the middle of the album, which is eventually tempered by the measured, considered closer "Anorexic Again". The self-explanatory song sheds the frantic tremble that characterises the rest of the album, with Hoons ending the song singing "goodbye" over a meandering backing that sounds like an encore that you never want to end. Lime Green comes off as being frazzled and rough, and there is something charming in its unabashed rawness.
