American-made but Brighton-based Lonnie Gunn is an artist who has become synonymous with brandishing emotive lyricism and fierce instrumentation to detail ill-fated queer relationships ('EX GF'), insatiable lust ('Jessie's Pitbull'), and narratives on malevolence ('Dog in a Hot Car'). 

With her discography slowly teetering from the alt-pop tinged cuts that marked her arrival to the darker notes of slacker-grunge, her latest track, 'lovebite', firmly plants her feet in the murky grounds of the latter.

Precisely on the three-minute mark, 'lovebite' boasts lush vocal intonations that offer up adoration-fuelled motives, despite the lyrical content suggesting otherwise. Addressing the need to feel loved and wanted ("come kiss me like you mean it / tell me my body's perfect"), thrilling guitars complement the urgency veined throughout pleading vocals.

Talking on the release, Gunn confesses: "I wrote this song while getting on the bus after getting a blood test at the hospital [nodded to in the cover art and lyrics], as you can hear in that fckass voice memo where I sound squeaky sorry y'all... I put a lot of love into this song. In my head, it's a love song even though the lyrics say otherwise. I think most of this past year I've been mentally/physically sick and felt kind of like I was rotting, and this song is about still wanting to know what love feels like despite that, and also pushing it away."

Steeped in bedroom-pop and calling for comparisons to HOLE, 'lovebite' is an impressive new offering from Gunn and firmly justifies her previously earned place on our ones to watch for 2025.

Lana Williams

@lanatakesphotos / @_lanaajade

Image: 'lovebite' Official Single Cover / TTSSFU

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