Lovelorn
Lovelorn is the creative output of husband and wife team Anna & Patrick Troxell, formerly of the Philadelphia psych-noise band Creepoid. They call themselves “drug pop,” which is to say the music they play is somewhere between Morphine and Mazzy Star with a danceable backbeat.
It’s not all that different from Creepoid in a lot of ways, but where that band existed on an obvious downbeat with, in some cases, hardcore influences, this newer outfit owes a debt to the electro-clash scene of the early aughts.
Still hailing from the City of Brotherly Love, Lovelorn make music that swirls around the room like cigarette smoke and vintage jazz. It wouldn’t seem out of place to imagine the duo sprawled out on bean bag chairs on shag carpeting with Portishead and Lee “Scratch” Perry records side by side, while underground disco records playing in the other room bleed into this disarming space.
That may seem like an improbable set of intersecting musical lines, but sometimes things come together organically and just exude an idea that is 100% the sum of its parts without being derivative.
So, maybe drug pop (or “Philly acid house,” as they also hashtag their work) is exactly the correct way to describe a sound of shoegaze-y vocals with muted dark tones and dance beats. Perhaps that’s a thing you’re into? I imagine drug pop is kind of a sexy night out with friends or a loved one.
Perhaps the road that Lovelorn is traversing is the key to a whole new generation of people reared on punk rock, steeped in deep, breathy vocal patterns with throbbing bass lines and danceable beats? Lovelorn played SXSW in 2019 and are returning for this year’s edition. They have the podium, and while we wait to see what this new generation of listeners grows up to be, we can speculate watching this sexy and slightly interstellar-alien entity do its musical thing.
For now you’ll still hear more of Lovelorn in person than through their small, all-cassette discography. They’ve been teasing a first full-length album, and for fans it can’t arrive soon enough.
Lovelorn, with Planet Loser, Real People and Glass Body play 8pm Monday, March 9 at Propaganda in Lake Worth. lovelornphilly.bandcamp.com ~ Tim Moffatt
