As Lime Garden release their effervescent new album ‘Maybe Not Tonight’, frontwoman Chloe Howard has spoken to NME about surviving your early 20s, body positivity and measuring expectations.
Out today (Friday April 10), ‘Maybe Not Tonight’ comes after the Brighton four-piece’s acclaimed 2024 debut ‘One More Thing‘ and follows the arc of all the ups and downs of a night out, questioning grief, self-esteem and the consequences of our actions over a banging indie soundtrack.
The album was launched with the title track, presenting “a woman on the edge of making all the wrong choices, it feels like getting punched in the face with the morning after a night out.”
“It’s about accepting the consequences of those choices, but making this album has made me learn to embrace living a bit more,” Howard told NME. “Enjoy the moment – what will be, will be.”
She continued: “It was important to show the realistic side of self-destructive fun behaviour. We have a lot of fun and go out a lot, but of course there are some downsides to that. It was fun to play on both sides.”
Howard said the album was best captured by the dancefloor ready ‘All Bad Parts’, relaying the band’s knack for “turning a pretty bad time in our lives into something fun.”
Another single that’s been dominating indie radio airwaves is ’23’ – a devastating self-reckoning about life in your 20s not being quite as you’d imagined as Howard mourns: “At 17 I had the world in my hands and at 23 I just lost it/Something about the fact I’m losing my edge I’m getting further away from a profit.”
“I had a nightmare where I was talking to my 17-year-old self and she was giving me a hard time about where I was in life,” she told NME. “I thought that would be a fun situation to write about, but in general I am quite hard on myself.”
And what did her 17-year-old self expect of her?
“I think she thought I’d have a Lamborghini and a stable income by now, but hey – it’s 2026!”
Fair enough. After all, the anxiety and fear of your mid-20s is hard enough without being heightened by modern pressures.
- READ MORE: The brave new world of Lime Garden
“Every 23-year-old would say it’s the hardest for them,” she added. “When you’re in your early 20s you think the world revolves around you, and that’ll be the same for every generation ever. But I do think with social media, the element of comparison is stronger than ever. We’re all insane at that age.”
The work to be creative while constantly being judged online, as well as what already comes with everyday life, also fed into the album. “I hate the way my body looks too, if that helps, but it won’t,” Howard sings on ‘Body’. “I hate the way I’m looking at you, you look so beautiful…I’m jealous, and I blame you for it.”
“We’re in a weird position because we’re in a band,” said Howard, explaining the song. “We see way too many photos of ourselves. No human should see that many photos of themselves. We’re young women and people are mean online.
“It’s about being open about that and being a bit more vulnerable. Our conversations about that definitely bled into the lyrics.”
‘Maybe Not Tonight’ was also written during a period of collective “mass breakup” among the band, feeding into the ethos of tracks like ‘Body’, ‘Lifestyle’ and ‘All Bad Parts’ facing up to uncomfortable truths to make sense of of the world.
“We have a studio in Peckham and we’re there every Tuesday and Wednesday,” Howard said. “Our writing time became a therapy session for each other. It was very cathartic. We would scream and cry together, and then we’d go out together. The whole album and writing process was fuelled by those emotions.”
Ultimately, the album is a process of working through anxieties, fears, traumas and one’s own choices and mistakes, or as Howard put it, “You have to actually face up to yourself.”
As for advice for others facing the fear and fog of those twenty-something years, Howard shared: “Just embrace it. I’ve learned to appreciate the beauty in not knowing where I am or what I’m doing and just rolling with the chaos. ‘Embrace the chaos’, is what I would say.”
‘Maybe Not Tonight’ is out now. Their 2026 headline tour dates are below. Visit here for tickets and more information.
Lime Garden 2026 tour dates are:
OCTOBER
2 – Bristol, Electric Bristol
5 – Oxford, The Bullingdon
6 – Cambridge, Junction 1
9 – Birkenhead, Future Yard
10 – Leeds, Stylus
12 – Newcastle, The Grove
13 – Edinburgh, Mash House
14 – Glasgow, Mono
16 – Manchester, Gorilla
17 – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
18 – Norwich, Waterfront
20 – Birmingham, Castle & Falcon
21 – London, Electric Brixton