Not found in the usual outlets, Lawrence is, as I may have previously stated, a pop genius. At the start of 2023, to little fanfare, Mozart Estate (previously Go-Kart Mozart) released the singular ‘Pop-Up! Kerching!And The Possibilities of Modern Shopping’.
Lawrence has crafted THE austerity era album here,bar none. Mr Hayward, the Brummie maverick behind Felt and Denim, most likely believes that the ‘Grange Hill’ theme is the apotheosis of pop culture, and has fused jaunty theme tune aesthetics with the most scathing lyrics ever penned. I’d suggest it would give the entire Tory government night sweats, but seeing as they’re not in possession of a conscience (not one of them) it’s a highly unlikely prospect.
There’s no synth sound too naff, as evinced by mighty anthem ‘Relative Poverty’, or ‘Lambeth Walk’ homage ‘Doin’ The Brickwall Crawl’, a meditation on style bars. and the homogenization of pretty much everything And cheeky surveillance culture paean ‘Vanilla Gorilla’ has the most obnoxious slap -bass since the ‘Seinfeld’ tune. This is A GOOD thing. Only Lawrence could write a jolly glam rock stomper, and title it, ‘I Wanna Murder You’.
It’s this dogged refusal to kow-tow to party bangerz; while somehow remaining relevant, that is so impressive to me. Recently, Lawrence did a car boot sale, and sold off some of his impressive library of books, all personalised with a special rubber stamp, and a little blurb on what the book meant to him in his formative years. Clever – only a hard -hearted bastard would sell that on eBay.
Essentially, in a world of kale and kiwi smoothies and ashtanga yoga, Lawrence is strong builder’s tea and morning work- outs with Mad Lizzie (pictured, but ask your mum). This is why we must cherish him, the little tyke. He’s perverse, awkward, and literate, when these are increasingly rare commodities. He also says, “gosh” a lot. Bless him.
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