By Tom Owen
Rat Boy is back again with another new single. After releasing the singles ‘Move’, ‘Get Over It’ and ‘Cash in Hand’ this year, along with being involved in a packed festival season and headlining his biggest UK tour to date, Jordan Cardy (aka Rat Boy) has been an extremely busy man. The newest installment comes in the form of ‘Lovers Law’, and it epitomises everything that is great about Rat Boy.
What’s so brilliant about Rat Boy is the fact that he is a chameleon – forever changing his sound and showcasing just how flexible he is when it comes to genre. ‘Lovers Law’ only lays further credibility to this statement.
After ‘Move’ channeled some serious Beastie Boys vibes, ‘Lovers Law’ sends us off in a totally different direction again. It makes you want to get up and jump, bursting with character and seemingly blending in some elements of all his previous songs, ‘Lovers Law’ is some kind of fantastic Disco/Dance/Indie hybrid – and it works brilliantly.
It combines all sorts of weird and wonderful samples and keys with some prominent guitar chords throughout the chorus. Alongside this, there are some rap-like paced lyrics throughout the verses – something that is now synonymous with Jordan and Rat Boy.
When hearing this song live on his recent UK tour, the chorus was one that had the entire band bouncing around the stage, shouting the lyrics down the mics. With some members of the audience already aware of the words and singing them back to the boys in the band, the chorus of “Stab me in the back, can’t deal with feelings like that” is one that is sure to be chanted in venues up and down the country whenever Rat Boy next tour.
This latest single is a big move away from the earlier material such as ‘Sign On’ and ‘Fake ID’, both of which helped catapult Rat Boy onto the scene. But it is a very welcome move. It showcases just what a special talent Rat Boy is, and with his debut album expected early next year, it’ll be interesting to see how he pieces the genre-spanning album together.
Good luck pigeonholing Rat Boy into one specific genre when that comes out.
