Lovejoy Deliver a Chronically Honest and Hopeful EP in 'Wake Up & It’s Over'
Photo: Dan Pearce
“I’m not paranoid, I’m a realist.” With its cover art cleverly depicting a train wreck, Lovejoy’s Wake Up & It’s Over is a UK indie rock masterpiece, catastrophically honest and chronically hopeful.
Opening with “Portrait of a Blank Slate,” the band’s third EP drives us through a series of confrontations. From the poison of status-driven greed to the performance of unrequited love, we’re met with the nuances of being human in a digital age, equipped with overdriven riffs and double-kick drums.
Consisting of Brighton natives William Gold, Joe Goldsmith, Mark Boardman, and Ash Kabosu, Lovejoy struck fortune in their melancholic pop punk and storytelling, painting scenes impossible not to see yourself in the imagery of. From checking out of relationships mentally before physically, to doing too much for someone who wouldn’t do it for you, Lovejoy calls it all out, camouflaging it with wordy nostalgia.
“Warsaw” tells every girl hungover from life’s story, while “Consequences” is a raw admission to self-imposed suffering, because one thing Lovejoy does not evade is accountability. We may be victims to the machine, but we can’t deny ourselves to be cogs in the wheel.
As you run through the EP, closing out with the fan favorite “It’s Golden Hour Somewhere,” you find yourself returned safely back home to a sense of hope. There’s something about calling out the bullshit by name that disempowers it, reminding us of the choice within our sentience and the liberation that comes with laughing at it. Being human was never not going to be silly, but we mustn’t forget to point out the absurdity, because that’s when the drowning begins. As Lovejoy’s popularity grows beyond their UK dominion, their music is a medicine for a generation too amused to turn a blind eye.
Listen to Wake Up & It's Over below:
