TULLE is an Oslo-based, 24 year old artist and songwriter, who uses the term ‘Death-Pop’ to describe her music. I think that must be a joke (and ‘joke’ is how her name translates from Norwegian to English) because although ‘Can’t be saved’ is melancholic and gothic I’d hardly describe it as morbid.
Even so, that is her preferred stylisation, focusing on ‘the big questions’ we’d all prefer to put off until another day, assuming there is one, such as what happens after death, and what do we become after grief?
Actually, the deeper you delve into her back story, the greater the inherent morbidity that rises to the surface. It’s more like a black story. She’d be a great death metal writer.
And she has the look of Wednesday Addams about her.
Her first single was ‘Dead Dead Dead’ in 2022 (I took a listen to that wondering if it sounded anything like Fiona Apple’s ‘Red, Red, Red’ – it didn’t; it’s more like a requiem mass), and 2023 saw a series of singles including ‘Godforsaken City’, ‘I Hope Your Demons Look Like Me’ and ‘Skeletons’.
If you read her website the landing page carries the blood red message ‘Grief is Heavy. Grief is Eternal.’ Cripes!
Don’t have nightmares.
But I’m sticking to my guns here. Despite the subject matter I don’t find Tulle’s work depressing at all. ‘Can’t be saved’ starts off disarmingly with pretty much the same chords as ‘Wonderwall’ and then develops into an extreme form of despondent Nordicana. It takes the form of a confessional which is going nowhere because the devil is sitting inside her head and painting it red.
Smart lyrics like that abound, Tulle has the same delayed delivery on the last word of a line as that perfected by Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir in Of Monsters and Men and she channels Jenny Lewis so well that this song would have fitted perfectly into her anti-folk/gospel ‘Rabbit Fur Coat’ album, a masterpiece for those seeking lyrical and musical nirvana while delving into dark places.
The song is about questioning your faith while being in a state of defeat but I have complete faith in Tulle. It took just one hearing of this song to know that she has genuine star quality.
I want to hear on her British radio, pronto, but I don’t think she’ll be featuring on the religious programmes somehow.
An EP will follow shortly. In the meantime, keep yourself busy. The devil will find you work for idle hands to do, when he’s finished with Tulle.
Find her on:
Website: https://www.tullemusic.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tullemusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tullemusic/
