Despite still introducing themselves as “a little band from the south of England,” Lovejoy’s newest single, “Normal People Things,” immediately jumped into the top 30 biggest songs of the week in their home country. Following its release on Oct. 6, it’s already on track to surpass their last hit single,“Call Me What You Like,” in terms of popularity and listens. It’s a testament to Lovejoy’s unprecedented rapid growth in popularity since their first album just two years ago.

For those unfamiliar, Lovejoy is a British indie rock band. Anyone who knows me will be very familiar with this. Lovejoy is playing from my phone at any spare moment, Lovejoy is my automatic response to music recommendations, Lovejoy is the first thing I add to my friends’ playlists when they ask for suggestions.

Lovejoy’s tracks often use their lyrics, as well as information shared by the band in concerts and interviews, to build stories that are closer to peculiar than normal. It’s one of the biggest reasons I love them so much: as a writer and a storyteller, the crafting of these songs is mesmerizing to me. Their past release, “Sex Sells,” comments on moral responsibility, social and economic class isolation and the taboo around sex work. “Perfume” and “Call Me What You Like” tie into the isolation that comes with being adverse or indifferent to romance in a society that places so much value on it—I have appreciated the representation as someone on the aromantic spectrum.  Moreover,  I find a lot of myself in the songs, as one does with their favorite artists. They have the same fixation on the intriguing and eccentric as I do. Music is a commentary as well as entertainment, and with commentary comes questions.

“Normal People Things” has a similar energy in this sense. While promoting the song, lead singer Wil Gold described it as a song he wrote “about things normal people do, such as shopping, showering, occupying space, panic attacks, etc.” In the song, he comments with a noticeable degree of sarcasm about how surely “it’s normal people things just to lie here in silence.” It’s the story of an attempt to find someone else who might share one of these moments with the singer, a hypochondriac who attempts to perform normality anxiously, without knowing exactly what it is supposed to entail or caring for doing so. Finding kinship in silence and dead eyes, a constant hyper awareness of everything but yourself, struggling against apathy, that’s a thing normal people do. Right?

I am very much not normal about “Normal People Things.” From the very first lyrics to a background bass that drills the tune into your ears, it’s an easy tune to get stuck in your head and an even easier one to play on loop all day long. I’m hardly a musician, so I tend to focus more on lyrics than their backing tracks; but guitarists Ash and Jo, and drummer Mark, match the energy of the words without the noise overwhelming the vocals, creating a well balanced and addicting rhythm. 

The opening of “Normal People Things” may be my favorite part, with lyricist Will Gold’s lyrics calling panic attacks the “backing track” of his life, a “background hum for cerebellum.” Cerebellum being a part of the brain that coordinates and regulates muscle activity, which is the part of your brain responsible for panic attacks. Sparsely used words or references are part of Lovejoy’s bit: words like “cerebellum” or “hypoglycemic”–“Portrait Of A Blank Slate,” a song from an earlier album–interwoven into catchy lyrics that help to develop a deeper narrative within the song. The expert lyricism is the intricately crafted detail pieces that make up the picture painted. 

Like most of Lovejoy’s songs, the lyrics form a commentary on the peculiarities of ourselves as individuals as well as within our society. The importance or stigma that we give certain things often stems from corruption, shallowness, or prejudice. Lovejoy so effortlessly and clearly conveys these beliefs, and when translated into songs like “Normal People Things” their slightly cynical, critical commentary creates an often ironic, always intriguing story. Their lyrical style gives the casual listener an addictive beat and the analytical minded fan some things to think about. As someone who enjoys both, the new single leaves me with several layers to unpack and lands among my favorite songs by Lovejoy.