Jenny Hollingworth embraces 1980s new wave on solo debut Quicksand Heart

Jenny Hollingworth, the 27-year-old Norwich native and half of Let’s Eat Grandma, offers her first solo venture, Quicksand Heart, which sets its introspection to knowingly nostalgic 1980s new wave.

Over the past decade Hollingworth’s output has become steadily less strange. As one half of Let’s Eat Grandma she started out making freaky synth‑folk; the duo’s 2016 debut, I, Gemini, was described as outsiderish juvenilia, and the follow-up, I’m All Ears, sharpened their songwriting while keeping eccentricities. By 2022’s Two Ribbons they had moved into slightly more subdued, conventional territory while retaining idiosyncratic sonic detail.

Like Two Ribbons, Quicksand Heart reflects on grief — the album notes that she lost her partner in 2019 — and on the temporary disintegration of her lifelong friendship with Rosa Walton. When the choruses don’t sparkle, the record can feel like plodding through the past, but tracks such as Every Ounce of Me achieve a bittersweet bounce that the review says bridges Olivia Rodrigo and the Waterboys.

The record peaks with the power‑pop number Appetite and the genre‑bending Do You Still Believe in Me?, which the review says patchworks breakbeats, vertiginous vocals, squealing hair‑metal bombast and shoegazey dissonance, reminders of Hollingworth’s singular powers and moments where the album’s familiarity becomes transcendent.

Key Topics

Culture, Jenny Hollingworth, Lets Eat Grandma, Quicksand Heart, Rosa Walton, Norwich