SPIN-OFF EP OF MURDER BALLADS: ‘LOVEBITES’
A PROJECT FEATURING PETE DOHERTY
AND DR JOHN COOPER CLARKE
“The carbon monoxide didn’t kill us,
but love nearly did”
EP OUT NOW
[Friday 22 May, 2026] Lovebites, a dark, biting EP of murder ballads and vampiric love songs by acclaimed songwriter Luvcat is out now. The release offers a dark spin-off from the cult starlet’s stunning debut album, which has now amassed over 120 million streams. Lovebites plays on her signature style, extending the album’s universe and sharpening it into something far more sinister. The release is punctuated by the sprawling and cinematic focus-track, ‘Silent Killer,’ a gloriously warped, romantic song, featuring flawless string arrangements.
Last month marked the release of the haunting ‘Vampire At The Beach’, paired with a Sweeney Todd–esque video (watch HERE). The single was met by critical praise, with CLASHcalling it “a blood-soaked act of alt-pop seduction whose alluring images are contrasted with a lingering sense of darkness.”
Each murder ballad on Lovebites draws from Luvcat’s own life. ‘Silent Killer’ recounts a near-fatal carbon monoxide leak in her old Camberwell flat; an invisible threat that nearly claimed the lives of the songwriter and her bandmates.
Speaking about the song, Luvcat said, “I was thinking of how love is very much like Carbon Monoxide or black mould. You can’t see it but sometimes it’s slowly, quietly poisoning you. An invisible assassin. There’s a funeral march at the end of the song, and a poem (“the heavens below and the hell above/ the kiss of death and the bite of love”). I called the EP Lovebites in both the erotic and the aching way.”
Elsewhere on the four-track body of work, punk poet legend Dr John Cooper Clarke is called upon to provide a counterpoint in the pitch black, duet ‘He’s My Man (The Anniversary)’, marking the one-year anniversary of the song, and has since surpassed 65 million streams and counting. The special anniversary edition of the single, featuring legendary punk poet Dr John Cooper Clarke, occurred after they first met in Liverpool at the Northern Music Awards. From there, the pair bonded over a shared love of the macabre and dark, witty storytelling. As John playfully puts it: “They were looking for a potential corpse. Why me?”
The EP reaches an impassioned crux on its final song, ‘Electric Chair’, a dramatic confessional in which the protagonist is tied to the electric chair, admitting her romantic wrongdoings (all the while insisting on being buried among icons at Paris’s legendary Père Lachaise, the final resting place of Oscar Wilde, Édith Piafand Jim Morrison). It is on ‘Electric Chair’ that another British lyrical heavyweight appears in the form of indie hero and Libertine, Pete Doherty.
Explaining how the collaboration between the pair came about, Luvcat said, “We were on the road with Peter. It was like a travelling circus. He’s a true troubadour, roaming through France. He was fighting his way through the pit of his adoring fans, selling his magazines for cash, and auctioning off his paintings. It was true chaos. Every night, his two big dogs, Gladys and Zeus, would sit at my feet while I was on stage. His little girl would ride out on his scooter; Peter would stroll out in his hat and lean into the mic and sing whatever he fancied at the time.
It was during one of these shared stage moments that the idea for the feature was born. Luvcat explains: “He came up with ‘tie me to the electric chair in my Italian underwear… just promise me you’ll pay the leccy bill.’ It was really sweet and a fun, playful way to end the EP and I knew we had to invite him to record it.”
