LET’S EAT GRANDMA - Hall Of Mirrors
Review by Jake Griffiths of Electrodrome FM
The name is the first thing that hits you. ‘Let’s Eat Grandma’ is a sentence used in grammar classes that highlights the importance of a well-placed comma, or a sentence which doesn’t include one at all. I’ll let you experiment, but it’s safe to say in Grandma’s case good grammar can save lives.
But there are some other things that really strike you about Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth, the two members of Let’s Eat Grandma. At the age of just 19 they were releasing their second album, 2018’s critically acclaimed, summery synth driven ‘I’m All Ears’. Lead single Hot Pink was co-produced by SOPHIE with Faris Badwan of The Horrors, sending them flying high into synth artpop territory. It went on to win Album Of The Year at the Q Awards. Despite its airy, pop-driven feeling I’m All Ears is surprisingly complex, bringing in unusual song structures, meaningful lyrics and darker subject matter. Another single - Ava - is a heart-wrenching Lily Allen-esque piano ballad, and I’m All Ears finishes on a 11 minute banger called Donnie Darko which has also become a live favourite - what’s not to love about that.
Let’s Eat Grandma are at their best when their uplifting, fluent melodies meet introspective lyrics. New release Hall Of Mirrors is a prime example and an impressive return. Confident enough to mark their entry into 2021’s attention-low music releases with a track that is 5 minutes 11 seconds long, Hall of Mirrors has the same fluent feel to some of the band’s biggest tracks. The vocal is perfectly pitched, taking on big themes of global disorientation and detachment from your own sense of self alongside personal feelings of missing someone you love. And the instrumentation is all pulsing arpeggiators, floating background vocals that you can never quite catch up to and instinctive-feeling piano breaks. It’s beautifully written.
Pop music is forever fetishing youth, extracting its looks, energy and innocence for its own ends. Although Let’s Eat Grandma are definitely pop stars at the formative stage of their careers, they met at the age of four and have been described as inseparable teenagers. What you’re getting in their sound feels like two fresh pairs of eyes but two wise heads that have become fully accustomed to sharing deep themes and writing complex music together. Part of their uniqueness is the beautiful combination of intense honesty in their words and themes that feels like it could only be expressed between two genuine friends.
