When Madeiline was released toward the end of last year, we got geared up for an impressive album to follow. However, with the release last week (April 2012), it turns out that at it’s best Lissy Trullie’s self titled debut album is shades of Karen O and Nico, but at it’s worst it’s bad pop of the more recent Marina and the Diamonds variety.
Opening track, Rules We Obey, is a slow burn intro with great depth in the vocals and a cool bells percussion beat running through it all. It all gets brilliantly interlooped as it slowly winds up and down towards the end with some great horns and synth mixing, followed by a fuzzy drop out.
That tees up Wearing Blue, which has got shades of 80s pop that works well with more trumpet blasts, although it drags on a bit too long without going anywhere new. It’s Only You Isn’t It is ska-pop underplayed with threading electric guitar, but it’s let down slightly by a chorus that’s a bit too simple.
It’s a problem that continues on X Red with the addition of nothing pop that does little to grab your attention, however, things take an upwards swing with some stylish drum beats and great combinations of droning synth and a mixture of different guitar techniques on Split You Out.
Caring, doesn’t quite live up to the sixties pop sound that it aims for, but by this stage nothing really matters, because Madeiline is up next and it would redeem the worst of musical offenses. Honestly, if it had been the final track on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, or the S.T.E.P.S Greatest Hits we would have probably done a review.
I Know Where you Sleep is a return to lower forms, with shades of euro-pop and the lesser tracks from La Roux. Things go down hill even further with Heart Sound, which is the closest resemblance to the kind of music that Marina is putting out these days, and 10 Glass Mountain has a promising introduction, but the rest of the song doesn’t really deliver.
Lissy Trullie ends on a bit of a background funk-bass and crunching guitar number that sounds OK-ish, but it definitely confirms the fact there is a divide on the album between what works well and what doesn’t. If we still had our old Aiwa 3 CD changer stereo, the track programming for Lissie Tully would have been 1, 2, 5, 7 and maybe 11 with the option to skip. Either way you look at it, this is a record of great highs and plummeting lows.
Lissie Trully album review: 3/5
(Although, if it was an E.P. the programmed track listing above it probably would have been 5/5.)
Lissie Trully album track list:
1. Rules We Obey
2. Wearing Blue
3. It’s Only You, Isn’t It
4. X Red
5. Spit You Out
6. Caring
7. Madeiline
8. I Know Where You Sleep
9. Heart Sound
10. Glass Mountains
11. You Bleed You
