Luvcat – Vicious Delicious
When Sophie Morgan Howarth first appeared as a 16-year-old acoustic artist, her delicate voice and stripped-back arrangements painted her as a promising singer-songwriter. A decade later, she emerged from the cocoon of minimalism under the name “Luvcat”, and her debut album Vicious Delicious marks a wild, theatrical rebirth. Morgan has created a character who is both haunted and self-seeking, embracing her own chaos as she searches for meaning within it.
Lipstick opens the record with a bang, or more accurately, a shimmer of eerie piano and sultry horns. It is an arresting departure from Morgan’s acoustic roots as it’s dark, seductive and cinematic. The intricate piano work that defined her earlier career now adds to the song’s phantasmal glamour, signalling that Luvcat is unafraid to be messy, moody or bold. Alien follows suit. Despite the layered production and supernatural characterisation, there is a pleading humanity in her vocals that grounds the song in emotional vulnerability. Thematically, Vicious Delicious begins to explore intimacy and identity. Luvcat is both repelled by and addicted to closeness, carving her own path toward self-discovery. With Alien, Luvcat takes pride in her difference, crafting an otherworldly persona that thrives in her own strangeness.
Luvcat often contradicts herself, and that is where much of the album’s charm lies. The first glimpse of this tension appears in Matador, the debut single released under the Luvcat name. The track slinks with creeping instrumental as she likens herself to a reckless bull charging towards her love’s red cape. The bridge in particular shows Morgan’s sharp storytelling instincts, balancing danger with elegance. Dinner @ Brasserie Zedel, another beloved single, sees Luvcat demanding reciprocity in love, her emotions swinging wildly from devotion to fury. While Matador captures the sweetness of newfound compatibility, Dinner @ Brasserie Zedel depicts Luvcat staking her unrelenting and unapologetically possessive claim on the subject.
Another instance exists with He’s My Man and the title track. With He’s My Man, Luvcat returns to delusion. Over swelling production and theatrical belts, Luvcat plays the role of the doting housewife as she pictures herself cooking, cleaning and waiting by the door, all while her lover unravels. The song’s brilliance lies in its irony as both a satire and a sincere portrayal of romantic denial. Then, in Vicious Delicious, she flips the narrative, sneering, “I don’t want to be your baby / Wouldn’t even if you paid me.” The swing between dependence and rejection turns Luvcat into a caricature of the “crazy ex-girlfriend” archetype, and she seems to revel in it.
Later highlights include Spider, a chilling Halloween-ready track where strings and plucked guitar weave a sinister web. The spider becomes a metaphor for something wicked growing with her as love curdles into paranoia. Emma Dilemma continues the descent into madness, introducing a possibly imaginary foil as Luvcat seems to debate whether to save or destroy the mysterious “Emma”.
By Laurie, the theatrical mask slips. The production strips back, echoing Morgan’s early career. It is sombre and almost tender, revealing a weary honesty beneath the gothic dramatics. Finally, Bad Books closes the record in darkness, with Luvcat fully embracing her twisted self-image as the antithesis of normality and safety.
With Vicious Delicious, Morgan not only reinvents herself with the Luvcat alter-ego, but she also delivers a project unlike any other. The album is a fever dream of obsession, power and identity, wrapped in lush, haunted baroque-pop production. Although paired excellently with the spookiness of the season, it’s a record that proves Luvcat is a character to remember.
Taryn Crowley
Image: Barnaby Fairley
Vicious Delicious is released on 31st October 2025. For further information or to order the album, visit Luvcat’s website here.
Watch the video for He’s My Man here:
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