Talulah Paisley is the idiosyncratic and intelligent art rock project of New York City-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Lyris Faron, formerly fronting T-Rextasy. On Fool, her deeply ambitious full-length debut album—five years in the making—under this moniker, she manifests herself in full technicolor, as if beamed from some coming-of-age fairy tale performed in a fancy theater. It’s a concept album with grandeur and guts, part orchestral fever dream, part bedroom pop confessional, unlike anything else I’ve heard so far this year. The versatile artist plays nearly 20 instruments herself, self-taught and possessed, supported by indie pals who help build the decor in which her amazing vocals and magnificent lyrics (“I wanna be like Dalí // Organizing orgies, not participating”—from Eccentric Man) can shine.

This is the kind of record you build your life around. It’s whimsical, it’s weird, it’s devastating.

Fool—written, produced, and arranged by Lyris Faron—is out now digitally and on cassette via People’s Coalition of Tandy x Ducky Collection.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp (here you can also find all the album credits)