Manchester’s lo‑fi indie duo Succulents have always carried the charm of a band you feel you’ve known for years, the kind who could be rehearsing in the terrace house next door, windows steamed, guitars slightly out of tune, harmonies sweet enough to fog the glass. With their new single ‘Work It Out’, they take that familiar intimacy and fire it into a sub‑three‑minute burst of fuzzed‑up joy that cements them as one of the most quietly exciting DIY acts emerging this year.

Released as the follow‑up to their February debut ‘Underdog’, the track arrives with a run of UK dates alongside cult favourites CUD and Coup Dur, marking the duo’s first proper stretch beyond their Manchester base. It’s a confident step for a band who’ve already begun carving out a distinctive identity — not just in their recordings, but in their wonderfully oddball live set‑up, where tape cuts and playful performance collide in a way that feels both nostalgic and new.

‘Work It Out’ sits somewhere between US college‑rock scruffiness and the tender British indie lineage of Belle & Sebastian, The Moldy Peaches, and The Pastels. It’s unpretentious, melodic, and proudly unpolished — the kind of track that doesn’t hide its seams, and is better for it.

Distorted guitars swirl into a cloud of warm fuzz, while Laurie Hulme and Lucy Ridges trade vocals with a sincerity that feels almost disarming. Their harmonies have that candy‑floss sweetness Succulents are quickly becoming known for, but there’s a bite underneath: a deceptively simple warning — “be careful what you wish for” — that anchors the song’s emotional core.

Hulme describes the track as a reflection on conflict resolution, but also on the strange apathy that creeps in when arguments become constant background noise — protests, politics, online spats, the endless churn of outrage. The protagonist isn’t indifferent, exactly; they’re exhausted. Avoiding conflict doesn’t make it disappear, and the song sits in that uneasy space between disengagement and responsibility.

Succulents’ charm has always been tied to their willingness to experiment in small, tactile ways. For ‘Work It Out’, Hulme used a capo he’d literally sawn in half, leaving it to cover only four strings. The resulting voicings give the track its distinctive character — and create a slightly surreal visual moment on stage, where his fretting hand swings around the neck in unexpected ways.

It’s a tiny detail, but it speaks volumes about the band’s ethos: playful, curious, and quietly inventive.

Succulents only made their gigging debut earlier this year at South Manchester’s cult All The Range night, followed by a slot at Manchester Popfest in June, sharing the bill with indie royalty Gina Birch (The Raincoats), BMX Bandits, and Lande Hekt. Those shows revealed a band with both a distinctive recorded sound and a developing live identity — one that feels rooted in the DIY tradition but never trapped by it.

With more material taking shape, and a growing batch of songs influenced by cult indie touchstones like The Field Mice, Yo La Tengo, The Clean, The Courtneys, and Comet Gain, Succulents are quietly building a world that blends hazy nostalgia with sparky immediacy.

Their newly announced run of UK shows stretches from August to October, taking them from Cheltenham to Edinburgh, Hull to Shipley — a modest but meaningful first step into wider territory.

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

‘Work It Out’ feels like the moment Succulents stop being a promising new duo and start becoming a band people talk about — the kind whose songs quietly embed themselves into playlists, memories, and late‑night conversations. It’s lo‑fi indie pop with heart, humour, and just enough chaos to keep things interesting.

If this is the direction they’re heading, the next few months could be very special indeed.

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