Lutalo — the 24-year-old Vermont-based artist whose postmodern indie rock surges with “lo-fi magnetism” (The Guardian) and poetic urgency — announces their debut album The Academy, out September 20 via Winspear, pre-order here.

Named after the St. Paul, MN school they attended on scholarship — the same school F. Scott Fitzgerald attended and famously dissected throughout his work — The Academy  marks a period of re-invigoration and self-actualization for Lutalo. Diverging from the gentler sounds of last year’s AGAIN EP or their collab with bedroom pop phenom Claud on “Running” from earlier this year, The Academy is an altogether knottier and bloodier affair that traverses down fresh sonic avenues while maintaining Lutalo’s idiosyncratic voice. Their time as an interloper into the elite world of The Academy lends Lutalo’s observations on class disparity and privilege a uniquely nuanced and humanizing perspective.

Expertly employing post-punk propulsion and moody atmospheric gestures, lead single “Ocean Swallows Him Whole” is a sophisticated rendering of the pratfalls of ambition and the soul-eroding aspects of careerism. As a whole, it serves as a vital and ambitious statement of intent — the product of a fruitful period of reinvention.

The arresting “Ocean Swallows Him Whole” video is a blur of wooded pathways, television projections, watery taxi ranks, and sterile hotel rooms — but the most lasting image is Lutalo peering through shades, efforting to observe unseen tensions.  

Says Lutalo: “”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. Something that is rooted in our culture, and an observation I’ve made about how people engage with popular cities and people they project ideas on to. It makes sense given our society so I want to make it clear that this isn’t a position of judgment, simply observation.“

Playing every instrument on The Academy, Lutalo crafts a beguiling and visceral amalgam of rock, folk, post-punk, and soul that serves as a potent backdrop to their literarily assembled character sketches and personal reckonings. Throughout, Lutalo’s exhibits an earnest and unsentimental curiosity about the world, dredging up empathy for anyone navigating their way through it.

This year is bound to be transformative for Lutalo, who’s hopping over to the UK for a run of festival dates before touring with Nilüfer Yanya in North America this fall. See all dates and info below.