Luluc have announced the release of Sweet Thief, their new album that moves differently, slipping in with a soft voice and sharper ideas beneath the surface.
The Australian duo, Zoë Randell and Steve Hassett, wrote and recorded the album in their Brooklyn studio across the summer of 2024, Sweet Thief unfolds across ten songs that lean into Luluc’s signature balance: meticulous, layered production set against disarming emotional clarity. It is a sound that rarely raises its voice, but rarely misses either.
At its core sits a tension between solitude and connection. Many of the songs begin in isolation, with Randell writing in quiet spaces that feel both removed and deeply tethered to the people and ideas that matter. From there, the duo’s intuitive collaboration builds something fuller without disturbing that stillness.
That push and pull plays out against a wider unease. Rather than delivering blunt critique, Luluc approach contemporary life sideways, reflecting on the subtle pressures to belong, to align, to keep pace. The result is less manifesto than meditation.
Lead single Rewarding Melody captures that ambiguity perfectly. On the surface, it drifts like a gentle love song. Listen closer and something shifts. There is a dryness in Randell’s delivery that complicates the sentiment, turning reassurance into something more questioning. Featuring percussion from J Mascis, the track sits in a warm, unhurried groove that hints at the album’s wider emotional reach.
Stream Rewarding Melody HERE.
The album’s title, drawn from a Shakespeare sonnet, signals a world of contradictions: beauty alongside violence, intimacy beside distraction. Luluc do not resolve those tensions. They sit inside them, letting the songs breathe.
