Jenny on Vacation: Quicksand Heart review – Reinventing the new wave of novelty innovation at Let’s Eat | music

HeyOver the past decade, 27-year-old Jenny Hollingsworth’s musical output has become steadily less bizarre. As one half of Let’s Eat Grandma, the Norwich native set out to make outrageous folk music, which resonated with the then-nascent pop music scene: I, Gemini, the duo’s 2016 debut, was outside events of the most exciting variety. For her follow-up, I’m All Ears, Hollingsworth and bandmate Rosa Walton honed their songwriting skills while sticking to their eccentricity. The result was an album of exciting future pop. By 2022, they were slipping into slightly quieter, traditional territory – though retaining enough distinct sonic detail to keep them right on the edge.

So it takes some time to adjust to the overt familiarity of Hollingworth’s first solo project. Like Two Ribbons, it reflects grief (she lost her partner in 2019) and the temporary disintegration of her ongoing friendship with Walton, except this time, the introspection is set to a new wave of ’80s nostalgia. When the choruses don’t shine, Quicksand Heart can feel like it’s wandering into the past, but the moment Hollingsworth lands on an irresistible melody — see: Every Ounce of Me, whose bittersweet bounce bridges the gap between Olivia Rodrigo and the Waterboys — the effect is transcendent. The record peaks with the typically quintessential powerpop number Appetite and the genre-bending Do You Still Believe in Me? Hollingsworth combines breakbeats, dizzy vocals, poetic metal screams and dissonance, reminding us of her unique powers in the process.