After their previous singles “Sick of Love” and “I Take It All Back” were both named as BBC Introducing’s Track of the Week, Scottish alt-pop duo LOVE SICK build upon their growing acclaim with today’s release of the new mixtape LOVE.
LOVE is released alongside a visual for its new focus track “FUCK YOU I LOVE YOU”. While the real-life couple – Julie Canning and Shaun Knox – regularly use love’s tempestuous highs and lows as a creative inspiration, this new song is their most uncompromising moment to date. It’s a rush of blood to the head, a Valentine’s gift wrapped in barbed wire, a final declaration that where love once prospered, anger now lurks. Julie’s soft vocals are initially full of disappointment but eventually she hollers in frustration, “Fuck you, I love you, fuck you, I hate you” before addressing a litany of failings culminating with, “Thought you were the one, fuck you for fucking this up.” And yet for all its anger, the song – much like the passion which inspired it – feels so good.
In addition to “Sick of Love”, “I Take It All Back” and “FUCK YOU I LOVE YOU”, LOVE also features the brand-new tracks “I Know U Know” and “No Good”, plus a remix of “Sick of Love”. Overflowing with fervent emotions and pop/electro influences that hint at Disclosure, Dua Lipa and SG Lewis, the LOVE mixtape uses the couple’s personal experiences as the starting point for love stories that are often closer to a psychological horror than a rom-com.
LOVE SICK commented, “LOVE is a window into our relationship: the ups and downs, fights, good times and bad. Writing these songs together was like a form of couples therapy and we turned our arguments into pop songs. There’s a lot of breaking up going on, but we’re still together! The production is just the first vibes that came out sonically when we were writing them together, and we didn’t stray too much from those original demos. We’ve learned that if something feels goods just should just roll with it and have some fun, rather than sticking to our preconceptions of what ‘LOVE SICK’ should sound like.”
First Julie and Shaun were strangers, two people connected only by a chance work call and a meeting at an office Christmas party where they discussed a shared love of Bob Marley. Then they were a couple, a development that only arose after an accidental reunion at a Glasgow train station. Then they were also a musical partnership, with both wanting to merge the boundaries between leftfield music and pure pop. And now they’re LOVE SICK, a project which is heading towards bigger things.
The release of LOVE is the latest highlight in an impressive year for the duo. It follows the two-part SICK mixtape, a huge Hyde Park show as guests to Duran Duran, and critical acclaim which has included The Line of Best Fit’s in-depth On The Rise feature.
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