Charlotte Plank’s new single L.S.D. (Love So Damaged), to give it its full name, kicks 2023 off with the kind of explosive burst of energy we need right now. Fuzzy guitar sizzles beneath Plank’s vocals as she confesses, “I play him like a video game, like a video game I do”. The song’s initial grungy elements giving way to confounded expectations as rolling drum & bass kicks in.
The sound 21-year-old Charlotte creates here is quite unlike anything I have heard before… A distinctively British take on the brutal honesty of anti-folk, evoking the vulnerability of Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Kate Nash, but thrust into an unexpected soundscape. Plank’s diverse influences, which include Winehouse but also take in Nirvana, Four Tet and the Prodigy, give rise to her kitchen-sink sound. Beyond the confluence of drum & bass meets grunge and anti-folk, L.S.D. utilises unexpected production flourishes – a record scratch moment, a telephone ring as she references making a desperate call. The result is infectiously organic and alive, despite its electric techniques.
L.S.D. is a song about a somewhat toxic relationship, with co-dependency, love and hate all tied up in one person. As Plank explains:
“This was written about the turbulent, habitual, addictive cycle of being in a toxic relationship. Whereby you know that it’s bad for you, you continue to hurt each other out of spite and lose respect for each other, yet it’s like you both subconsciously crave the problems and toxicity within one another and keep the rose-tinted glasses on yet another last chance despite your views of love being distorted and forever damaged.”
The feeling that opens L.S.D., of a relationship feeling like a video game, is one I am all too familiar with… Sometimes people feel like puzzles, with levels to progress through and situations to optimise your stat points against. It’s an unhealthy notion that can lead you to contorting yourself into someone you don’t actually want to be.