Luvcat’s new LP is a Bond–girl–meets–haunted–cabaret spectacle, shot through with the motif of a recurring circus refrain...
Where this melody stands out most is in the fourth track, ‘Dinner @ Brasserie Zédel’, a vaudeville-esque ballad that’s chock-full of manic, jazzy, waltzing orchestration. The track before it, ‘Matador’, introduces the theme on a pared-back acoustic guitar, starting as a playful, jangly tune that hints at the eeriness to come, almost as if the song were playing from a haunted music box. ‘Matador’, as well as the title track ‘Vicious Delicious’, are reminiscent of Panic! At The Disco’s debut album, with their twisted takes on dark romance, performance, and mystique making the listening experience feel more like stumbling onto a shadowy conspiracy.
Where Luvcat differs is her Sabrina Carpenter-style vocals, lyricism, and cheeky allure – murder ballad ‘He’s My Man’ specifically embodies this, with Carpenter known for killing a man in almost all of her music videos, while Luvcat similarly sings of her subversive take on domesticity and gender roles as she gleefully offs her traditional man. ‘Lipstick’, ‘Blushing’, and ‘Love & Money’ also read as highly stylised, campy performance pieces, with ‘Lipstick’ featuring a spooky warble straight out of an old Scooby-Doo episode. ‘Blushing’ is a love ballad, and the raunchy lyrics of ‘Love & Money’ serve as a whimsical manifestation of its titular themes, with Luvcat yearning for excess in true showgirl fashion.
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‘Spider’ is a dreamy noir lullaby that would not be out of place scoring a film like Alice in Wonderland, Coraline, or A Series of Unfortunate Events; listening feels like embodying a quirky, imaginative main character plagued with bad luck and perhaps the occasional evil spirit. Similarly, ‘Alien’ builds on this sense of otherness, with Luvcat exploring feelings of isolation and difference while trying to escape from the complex madness she’s built throughout the LP.
‘Emma Dilemma’ and ‘Laurie’ could almost be Paramore tracks with their catchy yet slightly off-kilter lyrics and powerful vocals. However, while ‘Emma Dilemma’ features distortion and punchy riffs, ‘Laurie’ is an anti-romantic orchestral ballad. The two songs bookend ‘The Kazimier Garden’, a short instrumental track that feels like being half-drugged at a sinister soirée or catching glimpses of a memory in your mind’s eye.
In all, Luvcat’s femme fatale persona is not to be messed with, and as the Halloween release date of ‘Vicious Delicious’ suggests, she’s not afraid to lean into her creepy side. ‘Bad Books’, the final track, sweeps shut the thick, moth-eaten, red velvet curtains, leaving decades of dust and glitter hanging in the air. Luvcat rounds off her performance with the dramatic airs of an opera, the whimsy of the circus, and the romance of a burlesque show – she can truly do it all.
Words: Eve Riordan
Luvcat official
UK + IE Tour Dates
Thu 6th Nov - SWG3 TV Studio - Glasgow, UK
Fri 7th Nov - The Academy - Dublin, UK
Mon 10th Nov - Trinity - Bristol, UK
Wed 12th Nov - Koko - London, UK
Thu 13th Nov - O2 Academy - Liverpool, UK
Fri 14th Nov - Academy2 - Manchester, UK
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