Lovejoy on the Brain

Lovejoy’s second EP “Pebble Brain” is a fun listen but leaves room for growth

By: Helen Weil & Alberto Gomez

British indie rock band Lovejoy might be new to the genre, but their dedicated fanbase would suggest a band with a much more storied history. They only have two EPs as of October 2021: “Are You Alright?” which was released in May, and “Pebble Brain,” which was released earlier this month. “Are You Alright?” was highly successful— the YouTube video is currently sitting at 10 million views. “Pebble Brain,” their newest release, seems to be following in its predecessor’s footsteps; the YouTube video garnered 3.5 million views in the first week. 

Lovejoy’s music is joyous, as the name might suggest, and catchy and upbeat. The band’s tagline is “if you like the same music we do and will come to our shows and shout our lyrics back at us, then you are already home,” and I believe they can attribute their success to this sentiment. They’ve curated a fanbase that likes a very specific style of indie rock, and they’ve nailed that style down. They are best known for lyrics meant for the audience to shout back, and fans count on the day they have enough songs to go on tour. However, most of their music can be summarized in just that one word— fun. It’s not overly unique, and many of their songs have similar-sounding guitar and drum tracks. Unfortunately, they haven’t found a unique voice yet, so I’m looking forward to the day they begin to branch out and experiment with new styles.

Their most recent release, “Pebble Brain,” kicks off with the song “Oh Yeah, You Gonna Cry?” told from the point of view of someone watching the current relationship of a potential romantic interest come to an end. The theme of broken relationships and the jealousy and anger that surrounds it is carried through the album in a few other songs: “Concrete,” “Perfume,” and “It’s All Futile! It’s All Pointless!” 

The third track, “Concrete,” follows up on themes of failing relationships from “Oh Yeah, You Gonna Cry?” using familiar horns, exciting percussion, and similar guitar riffs that the entirety of “Pebble Brain” tends to lean on over and over again. The songs of “Pebble Brain” tend to blend together in memory. On frequent replay, listeners may find themselves noticing acute similarities between songs. This problem becomes far too noticeable when listening on shuffle. While some may argue that this is an album, so of course, the songs sound similar, they truly lack distinction from each other. For example, “Concrete,” “Model Buses,” and “Perfume” all end in a similar manner: one final, abrupt strum slowly fading out. 

Along with the previously-mentioned topic of failing relationships, the album is intertwined with meaningful political messages in “Model Buses” (about Prime Minister Boris Johnson), “You’ll Understand When You’re Older” (about a minister of parliament and the pressure felt by service workers during the height of the pandemic), and “The Fall” (about the wealthy upper class). Braiding these two themes together as a creative choice worked well at some points but left the EP feeling almost incohesive. Combined with an audio mixing issue where the lead singer’s voice is sometimes hard to hear over the high-energy drums and guitar, Pebble Brain was somewhat difficult to figure out, but it is only their second EP, so some issues like these are bound to crop up while they iron out their storytelling and musical styles. 

Despite its pitfalls, “Pebble Brain” as a whole lived up to the excitement that led up to its release. It’s a fun, exciting album to listen to, and I know I’ll be playing it during late-night drives with friends, singing along until the day I can see the band in concert and shout their lyrics back to them. If Lovejoy’s success so far is anything to go by, they’re going to make a name for themselves in indie rock, and I’m looking forward to it.