Jenny On Holiday Quicksand Heart
Jenny On Holiday's Quicksand Heart arrives as a sunlit, nostalgically tilted pop record that balances grief and optimism across glossy 1980s new-wave textures. Across five professional reviews the consensus score sits at 71.4/100, and critics consistently point to a clustered set of standout songs that give the record its emotional and melodic lift.
Reviewers agree that the album's best songs provide the clearest evidence of Hollingworth's songwriting evolution. “Every Ounce of Me” emerges repeatedly as the record's single most immediate and transfixing moment, praised for turning longing into dance-floor catharsis. Other frequently cited highlights include “Do You Still Believe In Me?”, “Appetite” and “Pacemaker”, tracks critics say sharpen rhythm and hook-writing while tying lyrical preoccupations - loss, bodily anxiety and self-actualisation - to vivid pop arrangements. Professional reviews from The Line of Best Fit and The Guardian note a tension between polished production and traces of the offbeat weirdness that marked her work in Let’s Eat Grandma, with DIY and Paste celebrating the record's exuberant choruses and synth muscle.
The critical consensus is broadly favorable but nuanced: some critics praise the album as a confident solo departure, highlighting moments of euphoric release and melodic clarity, while others find the production occasionally cautious, recommending listeners return to the strongest tracks rather than treat the collection as utterly definitive. Quicksand Heart stakes a persuasive claim in Jenny On Holiday's catalogue as a thoughtfully crafted, nostalgia-laced pop record, and the reviews below map where its best songs and small risks pay off most clearly.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Do You Still Believe In Me?
2 mentions
"the genre-bending Do You Still Believe in Me? in which Hollingworth patchworks together breakbeats"— The Guardian
Appetite
2 mentions
"the record peaks with the archetypally perfect powerpop number Appetite"— The Guardian
Every Ounce of Me
5 mentions
"Every Ounce of Me, whose bittersweet bounce bridges the gap between Olivia Rodrigo and the Waterboys"— The Guardian
the genre-bending Do You Still Believe in Me? in which Hollingworth patchworks together breakbeats
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Good Intentions
Quicksand Heart
Every Ounce of Me
These Streets I Know
Pacemaker
Dolphins
Groundskeeping
Push
Do You Still Believe In Me?
Appetite
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 5 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Jenny On Holiday's Quicksand Heart is presented as an unashamedly pop record, where the best songs - notably “Do You Still Believe in Me?” and “Appetite” - jolt the album back to life with sharper rhythms and storytelling. The reviewer writes in a dry, candid tone, praising Hollingworth's "witchy voice" and knack for insistent choruses while chiding much of the production as bland and cautious. References to the title image and songs like “Every Ounce of Me” and “Pacemaker” tie the album's bodily anxieties to its lyrical strengths, but the overall sense is that strong individual tracks are trapped in an often underambitious package. The piece therefore recommends revisiting the best tracks rather than taking the record as a whole as decisive proof of artistic growth.
Key Points
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The best song, "Do You Still Believe In Me?", revives the album with syncopated beats and focused storytelling.
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The album's core strengths are Hollingworth's voice, memorable choruses, and lyrical metaphors about bodily anxiety, undermined by bland production.
Themes
Critic's Take
Jenny On Holiday's Quicksand Heart finds its best songs where heartbreak and euphoria collide, and the review points squarely to the title track and "Pacemaker" as the album's maximalist bangers. Wei writes in a vivid, music-first voice that celebrates big hooks and synth-soaked drama, noting how "Every Ounce of Me" and "Push" convert longing into irresistible dance-floor moments. The critic praises the opening trio of tracks as the record's high point, while also lamenting a second half that loses some of those earworm qualities. Overall, the piece frames the best tracks as joyful explosions of feeling that marry 80s blueprint textures with contemporary emotional directness.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its maximalist, Kate Bush-recalling drama and a memorable vocal climactic line.
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The album's core strength is marrying 80s synth-pop textures to a tension between euphoria and vulnerability.
Critic's Take
Jenny On Holiday’s Quicksand Heart feels like a careful swerve into comforting, knowingly nostalgic 1980s new wave, with its best tracks landing when Hollingworth finds an irresistible melody. The review highlights “Every Ounce of Me” as a bittersweet, transcendent bridge between Olivia Rodrigo and the Waterboys, and singles out “Appetite” as the record’s archetypal powerpop peak. Equally notable is “Do You Still Believe In Me?”, a genre-bending sequence that stitches breakbeats to swooping vocals and shoegaze dissonance, reminding listeners of her singular powers. Overall the album rewards patience — its strongest songs are the clearest evidence that Hollingworth’s songwriting has sharpened without losing edge.
Key Points
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The best song is best because it crystallizes Hollingworth's irresistible melodic gift and emotional clarity.
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The album's core strengths are sharpened songwriting, 1980s new wave nostalgia, and bold genre blending.
Themes
Critic's Take
At 26, Jenny On Holiday makes a persuasive solo case on Quicksand Heart, where “Good Intentions”, the title track and “Every Ounce Of Me” supply the album’s most immediate rewards. The record leans into sunlit, ’80s-tinged pop hooks and dynamic shifts, so the best songs on Quicksand Heart feel like deliberate, euphoric payoffs rather than throwaway singles. Where Let’s Eat Grandma once traded in offbeat weirdness, here Jenny opts for poise and polish, which makes the standout moments - particularly “Good Intentions” and “Every Ounce Of Me” - feel revitalising and candid. This is an album about small joys and self-actualisation, and its best tracks sell that message with bright, bursting choruses.
Key Points
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“Good Intentions” is the best song because it supplies the album’s immediate, bright chorus and acts as a spiritual successor to earlier work.
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The album’s core strengths are its ’80s-tinged pop hooks, dynamic shifts, and a focused self-actualisation theme executed with poise and polish.
Themes
Critic's Take
In this review Danny Munro writes with affectionate clarity about Jenny On Holiday and Quicksand Heart, singling out the effervescent “Every Ounce Of Me” and the aching “Dolphins”. He frames “These Streets I Know” as the seed of the record, a melancholic song threaded with glistening synths that leads into the album’s euphoric moments. The result is a solo record that feels like a holiday from Let’s Eat Grandma yet remains familiarly intimate, which answers searches for the best songs on Quicksand Heart by pointing listeners to “Every Ounce Of Me” and “Dolphins”.
Key Points
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The best song is "Every Ounce Of Me" because it transforms cautious optimism into euphoric, dancefloor-ready pop.
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The album’s strengths are its blend of melancholic themes with glistening synths and moments of genuine pop euphoria.