It's been too long since the last album from Let's Eat Grandma. The duo's last record, I'm All Ears, was in 2018 and in the last few years, Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth have clearly been upping their game as Two Ribbons is even more engaging. In short, the Transgressive Records release is one of this week's best new releases.
"Happy New Year" and "Levitation" blend percolating rhythms with sleek keyboard figures, serving up material that feels a bit like some of what Carla J. Easton has been crafting lately, even if Let's Eat Grandma seem to favor a bigger sound here. Those numbers, and the Sakamoto-flavored "Insect Loop" are immediately engaging, but the down-tempo, more languid tracks on this record are the real highlights here on Two Ribbons. "Strange Conversations" leans as heavily on an acoustic guitar to carry the tune as much as others do electronic textures, and it allows Rosa and Jenny to offer up their clearest, more lovely vocal performances on this, their third album together. Elsewhere, the elegant title cut unfurls at a deliberate clip, the pieces of the performance layered in with care and precision. The song is a gem, such that one almost wishes that the whole album had been like this.
Two Ribbons merges two styles from this Norwich act splendidly. And if a listener who's been with this band for a few years feels so inclined, it might be easy to say that the sound reveals a maturity in approach. Rather than being a description of something staid, the maturity of Two Ribbons is in how there's nothing wasted here, no fluff, only personal and beautiful, thoroughly unique synth-pop.
Two Ribbons is out on Friday via Transgressive.
More details on Let's Eat Grandma via the band's official website.
[Photo: El Hardwick]