The Lull Account is the musical equivalent of traveling through fog. Sparse and shadowy, they pull listeners along without revealing where they’re going or where they’ve been. Always elusive, The Lull Account’s self-titled debut operates in its reality, combining familiar elements into music that gives the impression that it belongs to some other realm of existence. Like their name implies, The Lull Account uses understatement both lyrically and musically to create new environments of sound.
Beginning with the spooky ambience of “Observed”, The Lull Account lures listeners into their strange world. At once gentle and unnerving, the spacey track sets the tone for this collection of oddly appealing songs that resist definition. The mixture of trip-hop beats and ominous strings with spoken word samples and hushed vocals create a soundtrack for a dark vision of the future. The Lull Account’s music is dramatic, but they carry it out without motives. The haunted “Life Without” drifts around its subject of lost love with subtle poetry. “Don’t speak of what we had. It burns your skin, it makes you mad” the vocals whisper cautiously over the restlessly shifting background noises. The Lull Account provides an uncertain sense of comfort, even in the unpleasantly erotic “Husband’s Tale”. There’s a layer of hope underneath the darkness in these songs, and while The Lull Account makes you work to find it, it is still there. Although it never becomes tedious, The Lull Account evenly maintains the same melancholy mood of throughout the entire album, and this can become a bit wearisome. The uniform tone drags the listener deeper into the gloom, and while it is enjoyable, it’s also more than most people want to take. Still, The Lull Account does this with certain seductiveness that makes sitting through it worthwhile.
The Lull Account’s somber perception of their world is exquisitely accomplished on their debut. Their unsettlingly beautiful ability to extract the essence of the hidden realities of life is unusually gratifying. You may not know where this place is that they’ve taken you, but you’ll want to stay there.