Wake Up & It's Over

Arriving almost a year after Lovejoy’s debut gig (as Lampwith Sock at Brighton’s UnBarred Brewery), the six tracks on this EP suggest a band that\'s fully absorbed the sweat, adrenaline, and chaos of playing shows as one of Britain’s fastest-rising guitar groups. From the opening rumble of barbed bass on “Portrait of a Blank Slate” to the moment Wilbur Gold spits, “I won’t announce my sheer descent/But holy fuck there will be signs” during the discordant climax of “It’s Golden Hour Somewhere,” *Wake Up & It’s Over* is the sound of Lovejoy finding even more vigor, velocity, and explosiveness in their music. While the sound recalls various eras—Britpop (“Consequences”), ’80s city pop (“Call Me What You Like”), and taut, post-Strokes indie (“Warsaw”)—the lyrics root the EP firmly in the now. Post-pandemic uncertainty provides the backdrop for relationship dramas, coming-of-age anxieties, and a withering portrait of conspicuous consumption (“It’s Golden Hour Somewhere”). “The place that she got her first kiss/Is now a vaccination clinic,” notes Gold on “Warsaw.” It’s a volatile world, but with *Wake Up & It’s Over*, Lovejoy’s place in it seems ever more assured.