Song Review: Lovejoy’s ‘With Rob As My Witness’

Lovejoy are a bit of an enigma. At their core, they’re an indie-rock band. Yet, it’s bands like Lovejoy that have caused this wave of insanely niche subgenres, and the need to try and categorize sounds that don’t typically fit together. The band have always pieced together aspects of post-hardcore, prog, indie, rock, alternative, and math-rock, so it feels difficult to try and articulate just where Lovejoy’s sound fits, other than just saying – it sounds like Lovejoy.

‘With Rob As My Witness’ sings with those tones of Lovejoy’s classic math-rock, indie-prog, pop-rock influenced sound. The song easily straddles, at its core, the indie-rock line, but branches out with flairs of what can only be described as Lovejoy-isms. That signature, poignant bassline, the crashing cymbals in the latter half of the chorus, Will Gold’s vocals coasting effortlessly throughout the track – it all feels like the sound they’ve built for themselves over the last four years.

Yet, the song manages to construct itself with a certain maturity that hasn’t necessarily been done before by the band. The instrumentals blare as clear as day while the vocals sound crisp and intense, showing the band’s newfound ability to refine their sounds into a cohesive, clear track. Gold’s words are more enunciated, allowing for the lyrics to take not quite center stage, but share it, with the song’s instrumentals.

Lovejoy’s lead single off their upcoming, unannounced – but confirmed – debut studio album feels like a warm-up, like the beginning of an ascent of a rollercoaster. It creates that pit in your stomach in anticipation of the drop, and the sheer adrenaline rush as you reach the peak, waiting for the inevitable drop. And that’s exactly what the band is doing – Lovejoy feel like they’re beginning an ascension to a sound that will be crashing and barreling on their first single, ‘With Rob As My Witness.’

You can stream Lovejoy’s new single, ‘With Rob As My Witness’ here.

In the meantime, you can keep up with Lovejoy on Instagram, TikTok, their official fan Subreddit, their YouTube, and their vlog channel.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to receive an email whenever there is fresh Lovejoy news.