Lovejoy, an indie-rock band that has only released three EPs since their start in 2021, has recently released their debut album “One Simple Trick” on October 3.
The starting song of Lovejoy’s debut album, “Baptism,” captures the overall vibe of the album pretty well. It’s not as heavy as later songs in the album, but that works well to make the later songs feel more impactful. The rhythm and tune of the song feel powerful, with a subtle calm to it.
Coming in with a more upbeat sound, “Pay & Display” is up next. This was the most popular song from the album, met with loads of love when it was dropped as a single before the album was released in August 2025. This song is more upbeat in its tone, which contrasts with the song’s overall message of feeling so stuck in your life that even the journey to heaven is just another transaction everyone goes through.
The next song on this album is “With Rob as My Witness.” My feelings on this song would be different if I were named Rob, but I was still a big fan of this song. The lyrics and toe-tapping rhythm are incredibly catchy, as both almost share the light with the instruments instead of the lyrics being the forefocus. It’s a pretty catchy and fun tune for a song about an internal, struggling mental state.
While the next song, “White Shark Cafe,” was not one of my favorites upon my first listen, seeing this performed live definitely made my opinion change. While it is paced a bit slower, with a focus on the drums more so, this song feels like it hits a good stride all the way through instead of building up to a big, flashy chorus. It makes extremely good sense as it is a song that is supposed to portray the feeling of boredom.
Roughly halfway through the album, the song “Common Touch” is a major standout in the best way possible. Upon my first listen, the intro felt like it was about to drive into this positive, happy-go-lucky tune. Throughout the song, that feeling is always a tiny bit there. This song explores self-sabotage and how the narrator wants to love, but cannot stand their own vulnerability. During the live performance, this song was accompanied by a visual of a bee around flowers before they all turned into venus flytraps. These visuals made this song feel so much more impactful when you interpreted what it meant, which was a goal that Lovejoy had for their entire album.
What I believe to be the centerpiece of the album, “Perfect Blue,” sounds more somber and laid back in its entirety, only slightly growing during its choruses. This song focuses on the sense of devotion and willingness to stand with someone through their struggles, symbolizing that person in the color blue, seeing them as “My Perfect Blue”. This song is downright beautiful, and the feeling of devotion in the performance is hearable throughout the whole song. In Lovejoy’s live performance, this song has visuals of nuclear power plants and molecules, echoing the fact that even if the person the narrator is standing by is toxic, he will still give himself to his “Perfect Blue”.
A very large switch up into a more upbeat rock tune, “Foxholes” is a very underrated gem from the album, a song that speaks about being a performer with social anxiety. The lead singer of Lovejoy, Wilbur Soot, also referred to as Will, uses this song as an outlet to discuss his feelings of his role in the band, using the lyrics to speak about how he wishes he could just disappear and get away from the publicity to have his privacy back. The music itself makes you just want to get up and dance, which is pretty ironic for the sad message of the song.
“Fatal” is my current favorite song on the album and for good reason. Right off the bat, the collection of guitar noise draws you in almost immediately, being amplified even more by the drums in the chorus. The chorus gets you in the best way possible and makes you want to bob your head to the beat. The song focuses on the themes of uncertainty and struggle to communicate in one’s relationships, fearing that bad communication could lead to the fatal end of a relationship. The song softens towards the end as the narrator tries to reason and appeal to who he is speaking to before the chorus kicks back in, the most powerful part of the whole song. Hearing the different parts of the previous choruses overlap one another gives a sense of panic yet awe, which matches up very well with the song. I highly recommend listening to this song specifically if you are a fan of indie rock, or just rock in general.
Next up is the song “Deathbox.” Will described it in the live performance as “Boxy Uppey Downey,” as this song takes the idea of being suffocated by societal pressure and places it in the theme of an elevator. While I think this is the weakest song in the album, I don’t think it’s bad in any regard. The drums grow in intensity throughout the song, almost like they are closing in on you, ending with a solo by the end of the song. It gives off a good feeling of almost paranoia, like the narrator is slowly getting trapped by every word he says. It definitely gave me a new view on elevators.
Objectively, I believe “Scoundrels” is the best song on the album. It was the one that I listened to all the time after my first listen through the album, and the track I was most excited to see live in Boston. This song’s overall theme is about finding meaning in a world where genuine actions are masked as “superficial.” That even if you strive to be accepted, you can end up just being seen as flawed or as a scoundrel. The chorus echoes the saying “I can’t access heaven if I tried,” taking the literal sense of going to heaven as being accepted in the world. One of the heaviest songs in the album, it ramps up from start to finish. When that last verse hits, it hits hard. The guitar and drums go off the rails, and the vocals feel like a blast of wind the whole way through. It’s a climax that pays off incredibly well. This is another song I recommend to any lovers of rock music.
Lastly, “Monochrome” is the song to finish the album off, wrapping up the album with a tone similar to the first song, “Baptism”. It feels like a somber curtain call, like it’s a final goodbye to everything that the album has given. As the lyrics at the end of the song say, “If you gotta leave tonight, could you take me with you?” it really encompasses the feeling of turmoil and longing for more out of something or someone. It connects well to the fact that with this song, the album is over, and you can’t help but want more. It’s a song that carries the mood of melancholy with the desire for something that is so close yet is leaving. The album builds to the previous song, and this one feels like it’s holding your hand as it leaves. It’s incredible and wraps the entire album up with a bittersweet end.
Michael Ardita can be contacted at
mardita@kscequinox.com
