Lovelife Make Glorious “Heartsick Pop” With “Exhaler”: Idolator Premiere

Four piece synthpop act Lovelife split their time between London and New York City, but if you’d told me they were Scandinavian, I would have believed you: There’s a gloomy pop sensibility to their music that’s Nordic in the best way. Their lush, swoony tunes have hooks that evoke the best R&B songs with production that’s gorgeously defeated — they call it “heartsick pop.” (I’d be inclined to do the same.)

At this point, they’re best known for their ace remixes of other songs — see their excellent transformations of songs by Natalia Kills, Kat Graham and Ellie Goulding — but I’d expect that to change with the release of their upcoming EP Stateless, out October 1.

So I’m especially stoked to premiere “Exhaler,” an excellent track from that release; it’s one of those songs so precociously fully-formed and expensive-sounding that you wonder why they aren’t already superstars; thudding drums and soulful harmonies lead into a chorus with an instrumental hook that’s infectious. There’s shades of Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears, but St. Lucia, too, in how likably sparkly it is. You’ll want to play it over and over again.

Listen below.