There is something suspiciously cheerful going on here.

Intro

Succulents are Laurie Hulme and Lucy Ridges, a Manchester boy-girl DIY duo apparently operating on the principle that three minutes, a fuzzy guitar, and a song you could whistle while waiting for the kettle to boil could be, perhaps, quite sufficient equipment with which to confront the collapse of civil discourse.

Annoyingly, they may have a point.

The song

“Work It Out” arrives dressed in little crumpled clothes of late 80’s British indie-pop (The Pastels, Primal Scream) with a mix of early 90’s US lo-fi psych-pop (like the Elephant 6 Collective… I kept hearing The Minders and The Apples in Stereo, in particular, happily…!): unabashed melody and the sort of homemade, sweet charm that once came accompanied by a flexi-disc and a badly photocopied fanzine. 

But sweetness is something of a Trojan horse here.

Because “Work It Out” is really a song about being absolutely bloody exhausted by everyone arguing all the time.

Politics, protests, social media, strangers shouting at strangers: Succulents’ protagonist surveys the whole miserable shouting match and considers the increasingly desirable option of simply not bothering.

It’s an extremely 2026 sentiment disguised as something that could have escaped from an indie cassette compilation from 1987!

And therein lies the trick. Succulents don’t attempt to out-shout the shouting. They respond with a shrug, a tune, and the gently ominous warning. Hulme says of the single: “Work It Out” is about conflict resolution, but also about that strange apathy you can feel when you’re surrounded by constant arguments – whether that’s protests, politics or toxic online spats. The protagonist is almost taking the attitude of ‘I can’t be bothered with this’, while knowing that sometimes avoiding conflict doesn’t necessarily make it disappear. ‘Be careful what you wish for’ is probably the most important line in the song.”

That line gives the song its teeth. Withdrawal feels tempting when every conversation has become a battlefield, but checking out has consequences too. Apathy isn’t quite the same thing as peace.

All of which would sound unbearably worthy if “Work It Out” weren’t so determinedly, almost ridiculously, charming. The contrast is the point: a deceptively simple pop song carrying around rather more anxiety than its jangling exterior initially lets on.

Conclusion

There was a time when British indie specialized in this sort of thing — records that sounded as though they had been made for about £54 in somebody’s bedroom yet somehow contained an entire worldview. 

Succulents haven’t reinvented that tradition. They have remembered why it worked.

Three minutes. 

Fuzz and melody. 

Existential fatigue.

“Be careful what you wish for,” indeed. 

Love it.

Chris Garrod, August 19, 2026

Taking to the road for a smattering of shows, in and beyond their home city, in the coming months, all current Succulents live dates are as follows:

• Thu 27 Aug – Cheltenham, Steam & Whistle w/CUD
• Thu 3 Sep – Edinburgh, Bannerman‘s Bar w/CUD
• Sat 12 Sep– Manchester, Klondike Club w/Coup Dur
• Fri 23 Oct – Hull, The New Adelphi w/CUD
• Sat 31 Oct – Shipley, Kirkgate Centre w/CUD

To find out more about Succulents, their upcoming live performances, and new releases, connect with the band online at:

www.instagram.com/succulentsband