The musical escapades of Night Lunch (Montréal, QC) elegantly evade the standard tropes of modern indie music by dint of a verve that’s just quirky enough to deceive the unsuspecting ear. In the shadowy corners of a city where sin never sleeps, the bunch writes clair-obscur pop songs, in essence, engaging with romantic themes as well as with phantasmagorical imagery. In practice, their perfectly anachronistic melodies are nestled atop spiffy arrangements rooted in early R&B, soul, AM gold and new wave. For things to come, the quartet kneels at the altar of the almighty deities of D.I.Y., crafting with leather-wearing, black varnish-sporting hands a sophomore full-length that is perfectly sumptuous, informed by multi-generational streams of cascading mismatched influences. Fire in the Rose Garden (October 20th, 2023 via Mothland) is a love letter written in timeless ink, a marvelous melodic elegy; bright indie pop with a somber twist.