Australian duo Luluc announce new album, 'Sweet Thief,' arriving July 10 via Community Music

AUSTRALIAN DUO LULUC ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, SWEET THIEF  ARRIVING JULY 10 VIA COMMUNITY MUSIC “REWARDING MELODY” OUT NOW – LISTEN

Photo by Mischa Baka]

There’s a palpable tension that sits at the heart of Australian duo Luluc’s (Zoë Randell and Steve Hassett) new album Sweet Thief, on which they question and examine the shiny surface of modernity alongside the exploitation and existential manipulation that has crept into almost every aspect of our lives. Formed of ten new songs, Sweet Thief was sketched out in Brooklyn in the summer of 2024 in the studio the duo have spent the past decade building and making their own. On their own terms, Luluc’s way of working remains unchanged, and it continues to form a key part of both the relationship between Zoë, Steve and their band’s signature sound. That formula is one of both meditation and exploration. While the songs are layered and sculpted over long periods of time, where the pair’s dynamism and unspoken musical connection comes to the forefront, their roots are in isolation, in the secluded spaces Zoë retreats to when writing. “That space is quiet and quite isolated,” she explains, “but it’s where I feel deeply connected to the people I love, and also to a much broader sense of shared experience that we've all got. To me, that's the most important thing about the work.” Presented and written with sensitivity, there’s also a wryness that runs through these songs; a playful, occasionally buoyant edge that can twist the meaning of words and sentiments from light to dark and back again. The album takes its title from a line in a Shakespeare sonnet, presenting it as a metaphor for the world as we find it today; an ever-changing kaleidoscope of love and hate, beauty and bloodshed, underpinned by a constant grapple for our attention. The album isn’t simply about holding a mirror up to that world, however. Instead, Luluc pry such notions apart and look for the beating heart at the core of such ideas, however obscured it might be. Take the lead single “Rewarding Melody.” Approached at face value, it could be a simple love song; an ode to holding on to what’s come before. “I’ll make for you a rewarding melody / One you can come to anytime you need,” Zoë sings. But there’s something in the delivery of it; a dryness, an almost unseen wink of an eye, that shifts that perspective the closer you look at it. Led by good friend J Mascis’ jaunty drum percussion and wrapped up inside Zoë and Steve’s warm production, it feels indicative of the album’s strange and alluring gaze. “We're constantly told that we have to be part of specific groups, that we're part of movements, but life is actually an individual experience,” Zoë says of the album’s overarching theme. “What you do with your life is in your hands and no one else's. Doing harm to others, trying to get one over on other people, is all based on delusions and false promises. Far more important is the individual relationship you have with your life.”  LISTEN TO “REWARDING MELODY” PRE-ORDER SWEET THIEF

TRACKLIST: 1. Honeyeater 2. Rewarding Melody 3. Dopamine Slot Machine 4. Wanna Get Free 5. No One Else’s Pen 6. Which Way Now 7. A Better Truth 8. Lullaby 9. River At Your Feet 10. Homesick in L.A.