Jimothy Lacoste @ The Mash House, Edinburgh, 7 Feb

Full of almost-rhymes, Jimothy Lacoste is bafflingly engaging tonight at The Mash House and his pure, charming comedy is lapped up utterly unironically by the crowd

Live Review by Kirstyn Smith | 11 Feb 2019
  • Jimothy Lacoste

Jimothy Lacoste is an enigma. The North London musician has bedroom pop nailed: a lo-fi mix of wavey beats and deadpan rapping. The problem is: you just can’t help wondering whether he’s taking the piss. According to Will Robson-Scott’s documentary, Life is Getting Quite Exciting, Jimothy is "100% serious". In it, we also learn he likes to sleep on the floor ("It’s good for my back"), eat four oranges a day, and fast for 24 hours each Tuesday. "I take the music seriously," he says. "I just don’t take myself seriously."

Perhaps his sound is so intriguing simply because "it just comes out that way". He’s a cross-section of Gen Z – the generation who aren’t as into drugs and drinking – and this is apparent in his lyrics. Tonight’s call and response 'When I say fuck, you say xans' gets the loudest reaction of the gig.

Full of almost-rhymes, his music is bafflingly engaging in an earwormy way. The streams of consciousness that emerge whenever he opens his mouth are reminiscent of James Acaster’s onstage character, just given a hip-hop backing and an audience. In Drugs, he ponders why his girl is taking so much, before helpfully suggesting alternatives: 'start drawing' and 'help your Dad with some heavy-duty sawing'. It’s pure, charming comedy, lapped up utterly unironically by fans; Lacoste is singing their lives, through a haze of mundanity and hope for the future.

Live, Lacoste is a lot more energetic than his recorded stuff implies. He commands the crowd to jump at each chorus – but is reprimanded before the encore and has to sheepishly calm things down. Instead, he reverts to his trademark dancing, moving across the stage like a wavey Darwin Deez, shirt hanging open and swaying hypnotically.

Not that this bothers anyone in the audience: they’ve watched his viral YouTube videos and know exactly what they’re here for. This does mean that the rapid high energy dips a bit when Lacoste tries out unreleased songs, and it probably wasn’t the best idea to hold the mic out to a Scottish audience while you’re chanting: ‘Feeling hella English, English, English'.

Lacoste is a cult icon whose slowburn rise takes him further and further from meme status with each DIY track he releases. His 'life is getting quite exciting' refrain rings pretty true.

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