Lissy Trullie - Lissy Trullie

Look up the dictionary definition of ‘cool’ and you might find Lissy Trullie staring straight back at cha. She’s so cool in fact, she makes Alexa Chung and her T4 chums look like University Challenge contestants. Of course, looking cool is useless if you don’t have the tunes to match, but thankfully this strawberry blonde New Yorker has set up (Top)shop with a whole drawer full of of them. The former model / janitor / DJ / insert here scrapped her original album sessions with Bernard Butler in favour of working with John Hill (Santigold, Mia) and Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the result is an album fed on a diet of mostly Eighties pop culture.

‘Lissy Trullie’s most immediate comparison is New Zealand’s own ragged revivalist Ladyhawke – Trullie’s voice a dead ringer for Pip Brown’s own deep tone. The polished ‘I Know Where You Sleep’ (a heart wrenching tale of obsession) is the Blondie homage Ladyhawke could never make. Meanwhile ‘Heartsound’ chugs along like Duran Duran’s ‘Rio,’ ‘Spit You Out’ borrows its rhythm from Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love,’ and the jangly ‘Caring’ is what the Smiths might sound like if they were brought up in sunny New York instead of dreary old Manchester. She even pays homage to fellow New Yorkers the Strokes in ‘Wearing Blue’ which would be at home in ‘Angles.’

Elsewhere, the album emits sass and attitude. ‘X Red’ travels through the Kills’ brand of dirty punk by way of Joy Division’s ‘No Love Lost’ and sugar coats it with a sweet cherry on top, whilst ‘closing track ‘You Bleed You’ wonderfully replicates the jagged guitars of Razorlight’s ‘Stumble and Fall.’ It all sounds Trullie effortless and it wouldn’t be surprising if she reached the same heights as her contemporaries with just as much ease.