Let’s Eat Grandma – “Donnie Darko”

In terms of underrated pop artists this decade, few are as talented as the duo of Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth – also known as Let’s Eat Grandma.  Perhaps that’s because they’re only 18 (17 at the time of this release) and their 2016 debut I, Gemini went largely unnoticed.  2018’s I’m All Ears started to change that just a little bit, as the band expanded its sonic palette from understated indie to more fully fleshed out art-pop.  The album is loaded with fun electro-pop jams, but there’s three towering epics that define the group’s artistic evolution: the 6 minute “Snakes & Ladders”, the 9 minute “Cool & Collected”, and the 11 minute curtain call “Donnie Darko.”  Of these main pillars, it’s “Donnie Darko” that stands out most as the duo’s claim to decade immortality.

“Donnie Darko” is a towering, absolutely magnificent collage of experimentation.  It transitions through several stages, beginning with a gradual keyboard-underscored guitar intro that builds in intensity until the notes become more vibrant and are joined by handclaps.  The song isn’t afraid to leave large swaths vocal-less, finding itself content to sink effortlessly into the lush pool of electronically-washed guitars and keyboards, which mesh brilliantly.  By the middle of the song, the vocals re-appear – a confident yet nearly stuttered delivery.  Synths glide in around the 6-minute mark, and suddenly we’re in dream-pop territory.  Eventually, all the instruments begin to clash together in a grand cacophony, and the song reaches its emotional apex – an uncomfortable detailing of a childhood of neglect and abuse atop a danceable beat, of all things: “I’ve got bed bug bites up my spine, and my left hand side cooled them down” / “Cause the beatings just get harder and we’ll never grow them out / Cause the hand that does the dealings is the one that feeds your mouth.”  The celebratory musical backdrop could be meant as either sarcasm or – more likely – triumph, but while the meaning of the aforementioned line remains open-ended (is this a personal account? a story? symbolism?), it stands in beautiful contrast to the optimistic tones that I’m All Ears initially set out with.   It’s the perfect resolution for the album, and on a larger scale it feels like Let’s Eat Grandma are announcing their arrival to the rest of the world in grand fashion.

If the future of indie-pop is in the hands of this talented young duo, then I feel very good about the direction of the genre.  “Donnie Darko” is their song of the decade, sure, but I get this sneaking feeling that they haven’t even reached their ceiling yet.  It’s a crazy thought considering how good they already are.

Read more from this decade at my homepage for Sowing’s Songs of the Decade.