Let’s Eat Grandma: I’m All Ears review – a radical leap forward

Norwich duo Let’s Eat Grandma’s 2016 debut, I, Gemini, written largely in their mid-teens, conjured a fey, Angela-Carter-does-avant-pop world of eldritch atmospheres, childlike vocals and jumbled styles. Those who found them too precious would be well advised to try again: two years on, Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth’s leap forward is remarkable. The thrumming synths and eerily scraping cello of instrumental intro Whitewater build anticipation nicely for the revelation that is Hot Pink, co-produced by Sophie and the Horrors’ Faris Badwan, on which Walton and Hollingworth’s insouciant vocals are more than a match for angle-grinder electronics and rapid shifts of tone. After that delightful shock, the rest of the album reveals a less dramatic, but sharper, more focused new sound. Falling Into Me’s gorgeous rippling keys give way to a deliciously juddering chorus, while interludes such as The Cat’s Pyjamas (purring, wistful fairground organ) and Missed Call (nervy pizzicato strings) keep things odd between lush, twisted synth-dreampop numbers such as It’s Not Just Me and I Will Be Waiting. It’s a radical evolution that keeps true to their idiosyncratic voice, and amounts to a textbook example of how to do weird pop well.