I once saw someone describe my lyrics as "uncomfortably personal", or something along those lines. I don't disagree — in fact, this quality is something I'm proud of — but I did find that comment a little funny, because said lyrics have almost always been covered in some layer of abstraction, so if even that was enough to discomfort someone, then a tracklist which gradually pulls that curtain all the way back must result in something downright scarring by comparison.

Of course, that's not to say the motivation behind laying myself so bare here was merely shock value; that genuinely just felt like the most fitting way to express my thoughts on the topics at hand. And by even acknowledging any of this so plainly, rather than indulging in the Mysterious Artist Who Simply Drops Whilst Refusing To Elaborate facade I once solely relied on, I am further demonstrating that willingness to open up. Sincerity is queen, and that will remain the case for as long as I'm creating.

The topics in question, by the way, primarily concern the range of conflicting feelings surrounding the past, present, & future of my rural home life; it's the simultaneous desire to get the hell away from here & to stay forever because the big-city adult world seems weird and scary. Couple that with a hefty dose of relationship angst & touch starvation, and you've got yourself a full-fledged emotional trainwreck to engage with however you see fit. I am naked and I no longer care. Despite everything, I am more liberated than I've ever been.

That particular writing style has put me in an interesting position, where I wouldn't be comfortable sharing this album with even some of my closest friends, yet have no problem publishing it to the world at large. That might sound paradoxical, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. The way I perceive releasing music is like planting a seed, walking away from it, and letting nature take its course; any resulting reaction feels entirely incidental, and at most I'll quietly observe from afar out of curiosity. I don't have much stake in it, because by the time you've typed up your little comment, I've already been back in the DAW conjuring up the next hundred or so projects and planning two years ahead on top of that. Unlike the opinions of strangers though, I do care greatly about my friends' opinions of me, and worry I may cross some kind of boundary by introducing them to the song where I talk about my girlfriend's cuckoldry kink. There's a more direct responsibility in that situation, whereas some unknown listener failing to grasp what they signed up for is entirely their problem.

Take that as a content warning if you must. Unlike the edgelord standup comedians of the world who bank entirely on spewing heinous shit about marginalized groups, I actually "Say The Things You Can't Say" in this album, simply by virtue of "oversharing" to a degree that the vast majority of active participants in Society (which I do not consider myself a part of) would deem "embarrassing". If such subject matter proves to be Too Much Information for you, or too Adult for any random 14 year olds in the audience (who frankly should be running away while they still can, because some day even my 'main' discography is gonna get to a point where I have to mark my accounts as explicitly 18+, so please don't make that weird for both of us), then stay tuned for my next LP, which will instead be centered around an original work of fiction, and has absolutely nothing to do with my sex life or lack thereof depending on your perspective. It's an epic trans empowerment murder fantasy, slotted for Q4 2024. Be there or be cis.

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Aesthetically, this project is set in some rough amalgamation of the years 2001 through 2014, specifically drawing from the gritty imagery of "butt rock" & "bro-country" at their respective commercial peaks.

A (likely incomplete) list of people & projects whose artistic DNA had some noticeable influence on this album's creation, or at least crossed my mind during it:

3 Doors Down, Breaking Benjamin, Carissa's Wierd, Caroliner, Creed, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dean Roberts, Ethel Cain, Florida Georgia Line, Foo Fighters, Foresteppe, Henry Flynt, Hobo Johnson, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Jane Remover, Kacey Musgraves, La Dispute, Lavender Country, Natural Snow Buildings, Nickelback, Of Monsters and Men, Old Saw, Pelt, Phil Elverum, Richard Dawson, Širom, Staind, Sun Kil Moon, thatcherblackwood, The Books, Three Days Grace

Special thanks to the romantic partners involved in this past year of my life, who gave their clearance on any lyrics alluding to them. You may not like it, but the aggressively autobiographical nature of this project was handled completely ethically!

• The very first note that eventually led to this album's creation went as follows:

roxy — 10/18/2022 8:19 AM
an lp involving country/brocountry somehow
Last Life of the Laurel

That's right. It was originally "Last Life of the Laurel". What the fuck. How could this be. I don't even remember why I changed that, actually. The final title arguably makes less sense with the intended meaning of Final Time That Will Be Spent At My Rural Home, but "Lull" does sound cooler to me, so whatever, that's the most important thing.

• You have no idea how difficult it was to keep those antlers from falling off during the cover photoshoot.

Speaking of which, much like LP12, this photoshoot contained dozens of possible source images that tragically didn't make it into any of the final cover art. Here's some of my favorites:

• The track title "Route Friendly" is partly intended to evoke the Kevin Macleod track "New Friendly", although this would require pronouncing "route" in a way that I do not normally pronounce it, as evidenced by the song itself. You can also see this same reference made by the Anime break TV Receptor album "XCVI: New Friendly". The word "friendly" in general is a recurring motif in my discography for reasons I struggle to articulate. It usually means something is Slightly Off. Or perhaps Very Wrong.

• TRACK 3 broke the record for longest period of time I'd ever spent on a single song, spanning somewhere around 9 months if I recall correctly.

• Beyond its already multi-layered meaning, the track title "Tastetrip" is also a nod to the KINREK album "the greens vol III: trestrip".

Also, the "non-existent girl from a famous webcomic" alluded to in the song itself is Jade Harley from Homestuck.

• TRACK 5's vocals were almost done entirely in one take, but I tragically had to split them into two sessions because my dad came home right around the part where I was singing about how much he fucking sucks. Hilarious timing.

• The backing vocals in the lead-up to TRACK 6's final chorus are just me singing "photograph dot mp3".

• "Don't Worry Grandma" is something I apparently said to my grandma when I was 3 years old, often enough for her to feel the need to immortalize it in a drawing, as seen below. Note the text in the top left.