Luvcat - Vicious Delicious

‘Vicious Delicious’ couldn’t feel more seasonally suited: the string-drenched ‘Spider’ and its creepy-crawly refrain - “Spider, spider, crawling inside her” - is like something from a horror movie. But Luvcat isn’t here for spooky season alone - this debut plays more like Halloween with a Valentine’s Day lens over the top. Light versus dark, innocence versus kink, desire versus destruction: Luvcat is always straddling both sides. “Nothing’s fictional, it’s all real,” she promises. And when she declares, “Can’t get off the ferris wheel / When the circus is in me,” during the carnival chaos of ‘Blushing’, it’s clear the ride’s about to start.


Opener ‘Lipstick’ gets straight to business with its flirtatious command: “Come kiss off all my lipstick.” Here, she toys with doll-like role-play before delving into more complex affairs later on the record. Happy endings are often rare for her male companions: ‘He’s My Man’ spins into a scorched murder ballad where the titular lover “keeps getting thinner” and is “complaining that his vision’s blurred,” with no explanation as to why, although one suspects Luvcat’s lack of concern is telling. Throughout these vignettes, there’s a sense that these men aren’t even the point at all - they’re props, characters directed from the centre of Luvcat’s own twisted stage, as she figures out her own identity.


And when she does stray from the themes of love and sexuality, the results are similarly compelling. ‘Alien’ trades lurid storytelling for dreamy Fleetwood Mac-like textures, reflecting on youth and outsiderdom: “Started feeling strange again / Stood amongst the sapiens / Tried to be the same as them / But I’m an alien,” she sings. A well-worn theme, but in Luvcat’s hands it still feels sincere.


There’s a chaos running through ‘Vicious Delicious’; recorded in snatched moments, its rough edges show: the lipstick has always been applied but it’s always a little smudged, the outfits well thought-out but the stockings slightly torn. But that’s part of its charm. Like pop peers CMAT and Lola Young, Luvcat leans into imperfection, and in doing so, becomes far more magnetic. ‘Vicious Delicious’ is messy, theatrical and unapologetically strange, and that’s exactly what makes it so captivating.