I have a weird, suffocating and in all definitions probably entirely sexist relationship with Let’s Eat Grandma. I feel hopelessly in love with their incredible debut, it was simultaneously insanely exploratory and captivatingly naive about where these probing songs would take it. Part of the reason I loved it so was the fact that Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth were from Norwich, a city I still consider my true birth place, as it was attending university there and living there for much of my 20s that I started to recognise what kind of person I was and what sort of man I had grown into*, so I’m always extra excited to hear such astonishing music from there. But it was also the fact that Walton and Hollingworth were 16/17 year old teenage girls when they released it. Was I subconsciously belittling these two incredible artists by thinking of them as my children??
(* I mean, the ‘man I’d grown into’ was dangerously excessive chronic depression case, with only any real love for alcohol and other brain altering tools, but at least I knew that! I, of course, got married in this period, and cheated several times because I was a fucking tool, because the more you drink the more popular you become with the opposite sex. I’m not saying this is the reason you should drink, I just think it’s only fair if you know the facts)
‘I’m All Ears’ is definitely the sound of the band growing up. It’s them (spit) maturing to the point where they’re able to communicate their obvious talents through music that is a lot more likely to appeal to most mainstream critical attention. ‘I’m All Ears’ isn’t ‘weird’ and ‘crazy’ in the same way that ‘I, Gemini’ was. It’s only strange in the way its gorgeous soundscapes and prog influenced sonic experiments dare to breach areas not usually travelled to. But it’s a beautiful oddness that is already sanctified and accepted by other similarly exploratory artists. The influences of Faris Badwan and Sophie (Let’s Eat Grandma actually manage far better with Sophie’s production ideas than Sophie herself does on her 2018 album) are obvious, but the input of other lauded artists doesn’t overpower the two artists own genius.
The critical consensus was overwhelmingly positive. Each review seemed to smirkily remark how ‘I’m All Ears’ showed a remarkable (spit) marurity from their silly and unfocused debut. That debut wasn’t silly and unfocused. It was a fucking gorgeous presentation of young creativity and burgeoning genius. Some reviews remarked that the quality of ‘I’m All Ears’ was a complete bolt from the blue, that nobody expected an album this good from a couple of silly teenagers from Norwich. Norwich! Fucking, Norwich! The amazing peaks that Let’s Eat Grandma hit on their second album is no surprise at all. The quality was all there in their debut, did none of you cunts listen to it!? Some reviews even illustrated how dumb and juvenile their debut was by pointing out that the girls even tried rapping at one stage! Hashtag awks!! Megalols!! Yes, they did. On Eat Shiitake Mushrooms. Scientifically proven to be the greatest song of 2016. A bit of fucking respect, please!! ‘I’m All Ears’ was even voted by readers of Q Magazine as the best album of the year. Instead of feeling proud and pleased for Let’s Eat Grandma, I couldn’t help but get a pang of transgression. You don’t get to love Let’s Eat Grandma! You don’t understand! You haven’t even heard their debut! They’re my band!!
I hate what the band have forced me to become.
51 minutes
‘I’m All Ears’ is fucking incredible. But you already knew that. Everyone knows that. I can’t help but hope their next album is poorly received, but I love it, so they can be my band again.
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