Emily Louise

What can I say, I’m a sucker for some good music

The new Lovejoy EP “Pebble Brain” was released on YouTube at 12:42am. It’s already racked up over 1.3 million views on the first day of release. It’s out on Apple Music and Spotify right now! Linked at the bottom of the review.

Lovejoy are relatively new on the indie rock scene with their first EP being released in June. Prior to this Will Gold, who is the lead singer of the band, released his own personal music under the pseudonym “Wilbur Soot”. Despite being new, they’ve excelled massively with millions of streams on their first EP “Are You Alright?”. Most songs on “Are You Alright?” have featured on many popular playlist’s on Spotify such as “Today’s Indie Rock” , “*hits different*” and “Gaming Lounge”

This EP has huge boots to fill and not to get ahead of myself but I think it has exceeded those expectations far beyond anyone would’ve thought. It is a natural progression from their first EP. “Pebble Brain” sounds a lot more developed and like they have settled into their sound and found a style that works for them. You can see they’re heavily inspired by the artists that they listen to such as Bloc Party, The Wombats and Two Door Cinema Club. If you wanna hear what other tunes inspired the EP Will has made a playlist you can listen to here.

The first song on the EP is “Oh Yeah, You Gonna Cry?”. This track is so catchy. The chorus “now now you need to calm down” is stuck in my head. The little piano tune at the start was cute. I really like the plucky guitar and the subtle hint of the trumpet. The instrumentals as a whole are super lively. You can totally tell that they were listening to the likes of The Wombats while making this. I feel like it’s a bit rough around the edges which I enjoy and it works for them. It is one of the tracks that grows on you the more you listen to it.

The next track is “Model Buses”. The bass on this tune is SEXY. It’s by far the standout in this song for sure. I love the constant use of trumpets throughout the whole EP. You can tell exactly what sound they were going for when making this track. I think Wilbur’s singing here is amazing, the instrumentation sounds great, is all mixed really well and it has a lot of uniqueness to it. In both of the tracks so far, Wilbur has a different tone to his singing compared to their first EP but honestly, I’m here for it.

“Concrete” is so far my favourite song on the EP. I think it’s a really mature sound for them. Again, the bass at the start is stunning and the drumming pattern is unique. When the guitar comes in I feel like this tune becomes quite surf-esque. I like the singular drum beats and guiatr chords leading up to the chorus. Then the build-up of both guitar and drums after this gets me hype. Again, the use of the trumpets gives this song a lot more depth. It’s genuinely very well made and they’ve done such a good job of making the whole EP a continuous sound.

Thank you to TommyInnit for getting them to keep Perfume on the EP because it is GORGEOUS. I can see why he likes it so much. They’ve really nailed the whole indie rock thing on the head. They sound hugely similar to other bands in the genre but they have a bit of flair about them. This record has got such huge potential. Wilburs vocals are really getting pushed to their limits which I love (not in a weird way). They’ve nailed the groovy guitar on this one too. It is a solid tune.

“You’ll Understand When You’re Older” is the fourth tune on this track. It’s got the trumpets, the really clean guitars and intense drums like many of the other songs on this EP but I don’t think it’s boring. Every track has its own flair. It eventually goes into a slower and quieter part of the song which is really nice. You can really hear the extent of Wilbur’s vocals here and it’s stunning. The guitar riffs towards the end of the tune completely sold it for me. It just gave me visions of jamming at a gig to it and it filled me with (love)joy.

Now “the Fall”. Two words to describe this tune is GROOVY BASS. Ash has done the bass justice on this EP. It is beautiful. It’s mainly just hi-hats and bass until suddenly a really great drum line comes in and there’s yelling in the back of the mix which complements Wilbur’s aggressive singing. I also noticed a northern twinge in some of the words he was saying which made me giggle. I think this is the most unique song on the EP by a mile it doesn’t follow the normal, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus formula which I think breaks up the song nicely. I saw a comment on youtube saying that it sounds like Will is letting out his inner theatre kid which made me howl and now that’s all I think about when listening to this song.

The final track on this EP isn’t a new tune. It’s all futile! It’s all pointless! is a previous song of Wilbur’s. It was featured on Will’s single “Maybe I was boring” toward the end of the song at around the 10:15 mark. It was a nice surprise to see this song on there and I think they did it justice. The acoustic version is nice if you’re wanting a chill song but the new version just adds so much more to it. It gives it the oomph the acoustic version was lacking. Again, the instruments on this song have been executed beautifully and it was a lovely way to end the EP.

Overall, the EP is on par with “Are You Alright?” I think with a few more listens it will top it for sure. I love the trumpet theme throughout the whole EP and I think this really tied all the songs together. If I was to pick any song to be their first mainstream single it’d probably be “Model Buses” I feel like the radio’s and other mainstream media would like this one the most. I can guarantee probably all of these songs are going to be on big Spotify playlists in no time just like their first EP. I’m genuinely excited for what’s to come of these lads because I think it’s going to be massive. Obviously, this EP isn’t perfect but it’s literally their second EP. There’s things that couldve been done better like I would’ve liked the vocals to be crisper but thats just me. It’s miles better than some of the second EP’s I’ve listened to over the years. They’re developing their sound and growing as a band and this EP showcases all of this.

(P.S. hello LoveJoy if you see this. You’re very cool 🙂 I’m no big-time reviewer and this is all just for fun but I hope you like my thoughts about the EP. Huge props to you all <3)

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