I’m All EarsĀ is a confident and inventive step forward for Let’s Eat Grandma.
Let’s Eat Grandma are an eccentric art pop duo from Norwich. They emerged two years ago with their self-proclaimed “experimental sludge pop” album I, Gemini.
Jenny Hollingworth and Rosa Walton have been friends since pre-school and have been making music for years together. Perhaps this is why their brand new album I’m All EarsĀ sounds years ahead of its time, not like it’s been created by two 19 year olds bringing out their second album.
The album opens with space-pop jam “Whitewater,” which merges sounds of synths and strings to create a spacey futuristic avant-garde vibe. The intro is followed by “Hot Pink,”
produced by SOPHIE and The Horrors’ Faris Badwan. Disjointed and disruptive sounds clash with an otherwise quite typical pop melody, and the result is potentially spell-bounding.
The songs that follow take us deeper into the rave. “Falling Into Me” feels like falling into the crowd in the dance tent at Coachella on the sunniest day of the year. The combination of deep and bassy synths with lighter melodies and the innocent vocals creates a refreshingly unique sound.
“The Cat’s Pyjamas” is well put together and less experimental but just as dreamy. The eleven minute finale “Donnie Darko” artfully captures the bizarre sci-fi world of the movie it is inspired by. It starts out as soft synth-pop and ventures into something to get you dancing with your arms up in the air as you spiral into the dreamy disco depths of the song.
Overall, the album confidently demonstrates what weird art pop can be. They are not a couple of weirdos jamming in their basements with theremins, they are two inventive and beautifully creative young women on the cusp of adulthood. Their music captures the whirlwind of youth and the feeling that sometimes the best way to find yourself in the madness is to stop for a moment and dance your socks off.
Unlike their debut,Ā I’m All EarsĀ is an album that knows what it wants to be and is happy to let the music pull the artists behind it in any and every direction. Like Hollingworth and Walton sing in “Falling Into You,” the album follows its own rules: “No need to be restrained /Ā Now whatever we know we should just say.” An impressive project and exciting step forward for the duo.
