Luvcat swings big on ‘Lovebites’, a grand portrayal of modern romance
There aren’t many artists on the planet who have curated a world as bespoke as Luvcat’s.
The usual crowd of reductive eye-rollers in the midst may just par it off as fantasy cosplaying amped up – such a misunderstanding is par for the course. Nuanced innovation always has its side effects. But to those really listening would realise that Luvcat’s vampiric visuals are just the beginning, for beneath it exists a myriad of stories from one of the most all-encompassing storytellers in music.
That much is clear from the very first track. ‘Vampires at the Beach’ is a near-perfect Luvcat number, from the swirling instrumentation on the introduction through to the lyrics, which were delivered via a vocal line that dances with the melody in such a hypnotic way. It’s intimate and grand in equal measures, delicately portraying the sense of longing that sits at the heart of its narrative.
Its grand finish is quickly swept away, for the brooding John Cooper Clarke collaboration ‘He’s My Man (The Anniversary)’. The cobbling voice of the old poet prowls along the dry guitar line that marks the introduction and captures your whole attention, as it always does. But you never forget this is a Luvcat EP. Of course, her voice arrives swiftly in the first pre-chorus, but you always felt it coming, for Luvcat’s presence feels ethereally strong, like the master composer of this haunting symphony.
The blueprint of the entire EP becomes evident on ‘Silent Killer’. The song that glides and plummets at the very same time, as the angling string sections fight to stay alive against the dramatic piano arrangements. It’s the perfect portrayal of love as a paradox in the modern age, which Luvcat serves as the perfect orator of.
“I was thinking of how love is very much like Carbon Monoxide or black mould,” she explained. “You can’t see it but sometimes it’s slowly, quietly poisoning you. An invisible assassin. There’s a funeral march at the end of the song, and a poem (‘the heavens below and the hell above/ the kiss of death and the bite of love’). I called the EP Lovebites in both the erotic and the aching way.”
Luvcat doesn’t need it, but there’s one last chance for a collaboration before the EP is out. Pete Doherty, who was the man to thank for the lyric, “Tie me to the electric chair in my Italian underwear.”
But while his influence was key in the writing, arranging and performing of the track, he rarely takes centre stage in the song and instead serves quietly in the background as a harmonising vocalist. Who can blame him? Because no one in their right mind would have dared interrupt the vocal that Luvcat laid down on this utterly stunning conclusion.
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