A record inspired by frontman
Richard Preece
's contempt for the
pop
culture phenomenon of looking to television to make our lives better,
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
takes aim at the program of the same name, as well as lotteries, makeover shows, and all similar broadcasts full of equally empty promises of happiness that can be purchased or won. Hailing from Brighton, England,
Lovejoy
crafts songs that linger lovingly on the ethereal notes often associated with
shoegaze
one moment, and then channel bits of
Richard Butler
's straightforward
genius the next. Morsels of
lo-fi
electronic
elements are mixed in as well, most notably on
"Snow Falling Softly (Bent Fabric Mix)."
While the swirling layers of guitars and watery vocals on a track like
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"
prove a strong and compelling slice of
-peppered splendor, it is with the more frank acoustic guitar driven numbers that
really shines. Perhaps the album's finest track,
"The Beat Hotel,"
(a cover of a song by
Biff Bang Pow!
, a group led by
Creation Records
head
Alan McGee
) is built on an acoustic foundation and is made magnificent by the gorgeous interplay of vocals between
Preece
and backing vocalist
Ally Board
. The sparkling contrast of
's soft-spoken, almost monotone vocals and
Board
's wispy delivery is perfect throughout the record.
"Night On Earth"
is a bit darker in tone, but works equally well, offering up glimpses of groups like
Echo and the Bunnymen
and
the Church
in the process. The title track gets the remix treatment by the
Snowdrops
and the
Sheriff
in the form of
"Millionaire. . .Maybe,"
which finds the track constructed of fragmented lyrics posing the looming question "Who wants to be a millionaire?" interspersed with a track of a small child saying "I don't want to be a millionaire." However, as the song closes, a man asks the child this question again, and the answer is "yes, please." Perhaps all of this is a bit of artsy cynicism on
's part, but it's an interesting, often gripping concept nonetheless. The album wraps up with
"Don't You (Wish You'd Never Met Me)?"
which, much as the title implies, is a slice of melancholia with an achingly sad refrain worthy of
Morrissey
himself.
Overall,
Who Wants to Be A Millionaire
? is a strong collection of wistful
indie pop
, likely to go over well with fans of the
scene, as well as groups like the
Screen Prints
,
Lucksmiths
, the
Green Pajamas
, and those who can't get enough of the sweet boy-girl vocal interplay that rose to prominence in the underground in the early '90s. ~ Karen E. Graves