Boston-based Little Fuss recently released their stellar new Lovely Distraction EP, an alluring blend of rock-pop hooks fueled by the band’s ever-visceral lyricism. Coalescing around the talents of duo Olivia Martinez and Cody Von Lehmden they create music that is at once bewitching as it is revitalizing. Revolving around tales of heartbreak and tongue-in-cheek confessionals they hitch to a series of hyperkinetic melodies and grilling riffs.
Lovely Distraction serves as the follow-up to the band’s debut album Girls at Parties, which first introduced the explosively beguiling force behind their surging power-art-pop. Every one of its 10 tracks reveals a fascinating new facet of Little Fuss’ sonic identity and it should absolutely be the next collection of music you submerse yourself in after a few spins of the EP.
But first comes its opening track “I Know Exactly,” where Martinez entangles questions of self-worth and the value of making sacrifices to appease someone who possesses virtually no empathy themselves. As she articulates against the song’s rollicking melody: “I guess I thought of giving up, / A piece of my dignity for your love, but / I don’t wanna split the sum.”
On “Hypothetical Girl” they pummel away to a surge of crashing percussion and fireball textures, bristling with sardonic wit against the tendency to contort to the fantasy versions people can create of you. Then there’s “What’s It Matter to You,” a sauntering and sizzling admission of deceit that swoons darkly alongside Martinez’s gleeful coos. “I’ve been lying on the phone to you,” she murmurs softly. “When I say I love you too.”
The EP’s title track ends it all with a clamorously jaunty mix of fuzzy guitars punctuated by the dual twinkling strike of xylophone keys and the shake of tambourines. The thunderously melodic exchange soundtracks Martinez’s sinkhole descent into a lovely distraction of her own. “You’ll be the dizzy death of me I swear baby,” she sings, realizing just how helpless she’s been rendered. “Today you kind of swept away / The hope that I’d be okay.”
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Words: Steven Ward
Listen to Lovely Distraction the new EP from Little Fuss below!
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