Quantcast

Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers

Music
cover art

Lovejoy

England Made Me EP

(Matineé; US: 10 Jul 2006; UK: 10 Sep 2006)

The joy in Lovejoy’s EP is not the joy of a gospel choir, it’s more of a faded fin de siècle sunniness sustained by a wall of spangled keyboard hum and series of ascending chords and notes that wash over you in waves. When the lead singer tells us in the title song that England is suffocating him, he offers up the news mildly, in the tone of one who is resigned to a long life of uneventful irony. Temperamentally speaking, it’s the opposite of punk. At a little under 20 minutes England Made Me is a nice length, long enough to immerse a sympathetic audience in the warm bath of Lovejoy’s keyboards and the humanistic squeak of a finger on a guitar string, but not so long that an easily irritated listener has time to feel bored by its starry murmur and switch the EP off.

Rating:

Related Articles
28 Jun 2005
English act Lovejoy create soft, dreamy pop that evokes sunny spring days -- until you take a close listen to the lyrics. Leave it to the English to be both soft-spoken and sharp-tongued.
Comments
Now on PopMatters
Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers (Announcements) [Tue, 3:00 pm]
Bone and Bell Release Second EP (Mixed Media) [Tue, 10:00 am]
Cannes 2012: Day 9 - 'Student' + 'In the Fog' (Notes from the Road) [Tue, 9:00 am]
The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader) [Tue, 8:00 am]
Devil May Cry: HD Collection (Reviews) [Tue, 6:45 am]
The Walkmen: Heaven (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
  1. The Top 10 Overplayed Songs You Hate by Artists You Love (Sound Affects)
  2. Tea with 'Sherlock': Investigating the Investigators (Features)
  3. Sunk? This 'Battleship' Stunk! (Short Ends and Leader)
  4. Tenacious D: Rize of the Fenix (Reviews)
  5. Top Ten Lost Midwest Punk Singles (Sound Affects)
  6. Like 'Doom', In Heels (Moving Pixels)
  7. 10 Pieces of Cinematic Art That Require Revisiting (Short Ends and Leader)
  8. Punk Rock's Pet Sounds: An Interview with Bomb the Music Industry! (Features)
  9. She's a Rainbow: A Tribute to Donna Summer (Features)
  10. Counterbalance No. 82: U2's 'Achtung Baby' (Sound Affects)
  11. 'Albatross': A Not-So-Weighty Coming-of-Age Meets Mid-Life-Crisis Film (Reviews)
  12. Counterbalance No. 83: The Stooges' 'Fun House' (Sound Affects)
  13. We Will Avenge Them Or… Be Avenged?: The Individual in the US Experience (Features)
  14. The Queen and Her Crayons: An Interview With Donna Summer (Features)
  15. The Best Canadian Records of the Year? The Fun Agony of Voting for the Polaris Prize Long List (Sound Affects)
  16. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Reviews)
  17. Flash Points: Mommy's Breast, Marriage Equality and Why Chipotle Is King (Features)
  18. Early Summer 2012 New Music Playlist (Mixed Media)
  19. Sherlock Holmes, Dirk Gently and the Case of the Eccentric Detective (Columns)
  20. The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader)
  21. Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death (Columns)
  22. In Support of Supports (Moving Pixels)
  23. Flash Points: Chicks, Sluts and Facebook (Features)
  24. In Defense Of... Rock Radio: A Force in Popular Culture (Columns)
  25. The Cult: Choice of Weapon (Reviews)
  26. Garbage: Not Your Kind of People (Reviews)
  27. Saint Etienne: Words and Music (Reviews)
  28. Willie Nelson: Heroes (Reviews)
  29. 'People's Pornography': The Mundanities of Pornography and Surveillance Culture (Reviews)
  30. Feeling '80s Spirit: Post-Hardcore Punk for the Plastic Generation (Columns)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.