If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Adam Alonzo Fresh off 2024's excellent The Academy, Vermont's Lutalo is back with a new single. Their music has always hopped between genres, with songs from The Academy ranging from folk-rock, alt-rock, psychedelia, post grunge, and more. "I Figured" heads back into the worlds of folk and Americana, but with an unexpected edge that borders on hip hop. I'm hearing a touch of hip hop spaghetti Western in "I Figured" that would make RZA proud. The sound comes seemingly from nowhere, but if you spent a decent amount of time with their previous album, this is going to make perfect sense. Not many artists can be such auditory chameleons, but no other artist is Lutalo. Lutalo says of their new single: "'I Figured' is about a 'situationship' that likely should not be, yet still find themselves coming back to each other. There is a bit of resentment and tension between both people, but when it comes to turning each other down they s...

Photo by Adam Alonzo One thing that's guaranteed with a new single from Lutalo is that you never know what to expect it to sound like. The Vermont based artist has dabbled in "space grunge," indie rock, post-punk, and others. Their latest single, "Summit Hill," lands more in the singer-songwriter and folk categories. The song has a little bit of a dreamy or spacey feel to it. You get a layer of haze over a song that would sound right at home at a coffee shop's open mic night. Of course, it's more of a DIY or bedroom sound on the folk spectrum, but that adds an extra layer to make "Summit Hill" even more engaging. With every single released, we get more excited and intrigued for Lulatlo's upcoming album. Lutalo says of their latest single: "My best friend and I often walked that neighborhood in our childhood admiring the homes, as a dream that someday we'd be able to live in something as grand. We both grew up in low income househol...

Photo by Adam Alonzo We've been enjoying how wildly diverse the singles from Vermont's Lutalo have been. The Vermont artist has dabbled in folk-rock, indie rock, post-punk, and singer-songwriter among others. Their latest single, "Oh Well," is described as "space grunge." The term grunge is being overused lately, but "Oh Well" is the rare song that lives up to that description. It has all of the heavy fuzz of grunge, but mixed with the alt-rock goes psychedelic of the post grunge mid to late 90's. It's a heavy song, but it's also spacey. It's reminding me a little of artists like Hum or Self's debut album. I would say Lutalo keeps defying expectations, but at this point we've come to expect and look forward to their genre hopping. Lutalo says that their latest single  "... focuses on remembering my parents separation and my mother's mental instability at a time when I didn’t understand what was going on. She was suf...

Photo by Patrick McCormack Lutalo was born in Minnesota but now calls Vermont home. They just released a pair of singles that showcase the artist's wide range. "The Bed" is an upbeat sounding folk-rock song about war propaganda with a surprisingly funky beat. Lutalo has a slacker style vocal that goes against the music in the track, but still works perfectly. The other single, "Broken Twin," is more of an indie rock goes mainstream style single. It sounds a lot like early 00's British rock, kind of like Travis or Coldplay but with a much stronger edge to it. "Broken Twin" also has a stronger beat than you would typically hear in this style of music, which I'm starting to suspect is Lutalo's calling card. Both singles stand on their own, but together they are great examples of just how diverse of an artist Lutalo is. Lutalo says that "The Bed" "... i s about being educated about American propaganda and war mongering at a young...

Photo by Patrick McCormack Vermont's Lutalo has released a new single from their debut album, and it's a must listen. "Ocean Swallows Him Whole" dances between the lines of 90's style indie rock and a dark version of post-punk. The song is brimming with the DIY appeal of bands like Sebadoh and Guided By Voices while having the undercurrent of dance friendly music like She Wants Revenge. Plus, there's a touch of modern, pop focused singer-songwriter in there. By borrowing from the past, Lutalo has crafted one of the more unique sounds in indie music today. Lutalo says of their new single: “'Ocean Swallows Him Whole' is a partial Icarus reference. It is more widely about interacting with a place, environment, or person with preconceived intentions. Going into that interaction with the thought of ‘what can I get out of this’ or ‘how can this serve my personal image.’ This ultimately consumes their true self as a means to fit in or gain personal standing. ...

Lutalo is the musical project of multi-instrumentalist and producer Lutalo Jones. They grew up in Minnesota and started playing music in an African drumming class as a child. They also discovered music through their father's love of hip hop, Bossanova, and jazz. After spending time in New York City, Lutalo now lives in Vermont alongside family with the intention of building a small community together. Lutalo's music doesn't seem to sound much like anything you'd expect from their past, until it suddenly clicks and it does. "Little Chance" is almost a folk song, but not quite. It has more of a singer-songwriter sound, albeit a very slickly produced lo-fi version. It's this sound over what could be quiet hip hop beats that gives a song like "Little Chance" such a unique sound. There aren't many almost folk, lo-fi singer-songwriter songs with hip hop beats out there.  Lutalo says of their new song: “ Broadly the concept speaks of how we as peopl...