Lucia & The Best Boys release '80s-leaning second album Picking Petals

Lucia & The Best Boys released their second album, Picking Petals, on July 31 via Communion. DIY reviewer Bella Martin calls it a continuation of the best parts of the band's '80s-influenced 2023 debut, Burning Castles, with the group finally settling into what works after a first record that spent too long trying on different styles.

The band has long carried an identity question, DIY notes: an early name change left ambiguity over whether Lucia Fairfull is the frontwoman of a band or effectively a solo artist working under a group name, since imagery centers on her alone while her "Best Boys" stay mostly unseen. Picking Petals does not resolve that question, but it does sharpen the sound, built around Fairfull's dark, booming vocal paired with a full lean into '80s pop production, drawing comparisons in the review to Roxette and a Cure-esque bassline on "You Look Like Somebody in Love."

One track stands out for its guest rather than its sound: Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry appears on "Lonely Girl." DIY frames her presence as more than a nod to a fellow Glasgow act, calling this more assured version of the band "far closer to a meeting of minds" than earlier comparisons might have suggested.

The review singles out "Forgot the Arrow" as the record's strongest moment, pairing classic pop songwriting with a dark, atmospheric arrangement that DIY likens to a "witchier" Lana Del Rey or Caroline Polachek. Not every track lands, with the review noting the country-tinged "Pleasure and a Prayer" and the more '90s-leaning "Better for the Worse" as the album's weaker spots.

Lucia & The Best Boys are touring behind the record this fall, with dates including Band on the Wall in Manchester on October 26 and Islington Assembly Hall in London on October 28, part of the wider slate tracked in the tour guide. Picking Petals joins the rest of the year's indie releases in the release calendar.