{"id":6279,"date":"2021-10-29T14:39:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T14:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/?p=6279"},"modified":"2021-10-29T14:39:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T14:39:23","slug":"new-lovejoy-album-pebble-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2021\/10\/29\/new-lovejoy-album-pebble-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"New Lovejoy Album Pebble Brain Delivers Solid Indie Love Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

School is in session and the weather is starting to cool down, but British indie rock band Lovejoy isn\u2019t letting the changing seasons stop them from dropping an upbeat, scream-the-lyrics-in-your-car album. Pebble Brain<\/em> was released October 13 as a 35-minute YouTube video<\/a> before becoming available on Spotify<\/a> and Apple Music<\/a> with seven songs. Compared to the band\u2019s first EP, Are You Alright?, Pebble Brain<\/em> is just as complex, but much brighter in its musical intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musically, Lovejoy\u2019s signature components are all apparent. Supplemental trumpets can be heard in just about every song, as are well-blended instrumental breakdowns; and, of course, nearly every song deals with romantic relationships, as is lead singer and content creator Wilbur Soot\u2019s lyrical motif. However, this does not mean the artist did not challenge himself. Pebble Brain<\/em> is full of choppy, strong rock vocals, especially in the breakdown of \u201cThe Fall,\u201d highlighting the narrator\u2019s mania moments before the beginning of a depressive episode. The bold, scraping vocals of this album are a far cry from Are You Alright?<\/em> or any of Wilbur Soot\u2019s solo songs, but they are not at all unwelcome and only add to the feelings of anger, frustration, and passion present throughout the album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pebble Brain<\/em> opens with \u201cOh Yeah, You Gonna Cry?\u201d, a jaunty track with a bright bassline and guitar. The song is all about how much better the narrator is than their partner\u2019s ex. \u201cI thought you knew her better than me\u201d closes out the chorus, and this playfully mean tone remains consistent in the lyricism throughout the entire album, from the drunkenly confident \u201cConcrete\u201d (\u201cIf I had it my way, you’d sleep on the concrete\u201d), to the bitter and paranoid \u201cPerfume\u201d (\u201cYou say your ex-boyfriend\u2019s a policeman \/ Well I say you need better standards\u201d). Even \u201cYou\u2019ll Understand When You\u2019re Older,\u201d which follows the struggles of a waitress during the COVID-19 pandemic and a co-worker\u2019s abusive relationship, holds a level of cruelty masked by humor, such as in the lyric \u201cAnd if you think that it gets better \/ Just you wait until next week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only one song in the entire album does not include the lyrical motif of relationships, and that is \u201cModel Buses.\u201d Keeping the sardonic witticisms, the band turns their focus to critique Boris Johnson (who attempted to explain his interest in making model buses<\/a> in a The Guardian<\/em> interview) and the British Conservative Party. They call out the traditionalist mindsets of those in charge, singing out \u201cYou\u2019re just scared \/ you\u2019re just scared of the future\u201d in an impassioned musical retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long-time Wilbur Soot fans were also treated to a re-creation of \u201cIt\u2019s All Futile! It\u2019s All Pointless!\u201d, a scrapped song<\/a> from his first album \u201cYour City Gave Me Asthma.\u201d The song follows the narrator, comparing how he imagined his life turning out in college to how he imagined a romantic relationship turning out – both turning out differently and, by proxy, altogether disappointing. Compared to the deep vocals and fast-paced acoustic guitar of the scrapped version, Lovejoy crafts \u201cIt\u2019s All Futile! It\u2019s All Pointless!\u201d to be a bright, upbeat track that still accurately portrays negativity in a more realistic way.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most albums dealing with breakups, toxic or abusive relationships, or just generally awful life situations take on a reasonably dark tone, and Pebble Brain<\/em> is no different. What truly sets Lovejoy\u2019s album apart from any other is their ability to not only blend the harmonious guitars, fast-paced drums, blaring trumpets, and a thrumming bassline present in light-hearted rock with these same themes, but balance them out in an upbeat, beautifully composed, and downright fun album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School is in session and the weather is starting to cool down, but British indie rock band Lovejoy isn\u2019t letting the changing seasons stop them from dropping an upbeat, scream-the-lyrics-in-your-car album. Pebble Brain was released October 13 as a 35-minute YouTube video before becoming available on Spotify and Apple Music with seven songs. Compared to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":6280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265,530,48],"tags":[1152,477,333,1150,1151,104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6281,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279\/revisions\/6281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}