This is how it works: in the same way corporations are compelled to grow or die and academics to publish or perish, bands must put out records. It’s not unheard-of for young bands to hit the studio before playing a single show–and if you’re looking to go on tour, another expected goal, it sure helps to have something on plastic. By those standards, Tallulah’s something of a nonentity. With the exception of a street fair near Kankakee, the quintet has never played out of town, and though the three women at its core (all in their mid- to late 30s) have been singing together since 1995, they’re only now releasing their first album, Step Into the Stars. And as of yet they have no plans to tour behind it.
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Yet Step Into the Stars has a fully realized sound that a band with a deeper press kit might well envy. Tallulah specializes in three- and four-part harmonies that hark back to the 60s–to groups like the Mamas & the Papas or even the Fifth Dimension. But its approach is distinctly unkitschy; the lyrics are sometimes light but never winking. There’s nice rhythmic variation, from the stuttery two-beat accents on “Untied” to the bossa nova groove of the title track. Some of the songs on the second half are considerably darker and less resolved: the electronics-enhanced “Sophia” gets its moody feel from a muted trumpet line and a melody that seems to withhold the gratification of a true hook, and “Doce Lunas” is smothered by waves of distorted guitar riffing.
“He pushed us in a particular way that made us grow,” says Warren, who began playing rhythm guitar and expanding her role as percussionist due to his steady encouragement. “When he came aboard, that’s when it really jelled as Tallulah,” she says. “It’s hard to describe, but it just felt like, ‘OK, this is the band.’”
Tallulah plays a release show for Step Into the Stars next Friday at the Empty Bottle.
