Tennyson - Rot (LP) - White Vinyl

Tennyson’s debut album Rot lands with the confidence of a producer who has finally put his name, voice, and nerves right at the centre of the frame. Luke Pretty has been a curious presence in electronic music for years, first with sister Tess on drums, folding jazz chords and cartoonish sound design into jittery beat sketches. Rot, released in February 2022 on Counter Records, is the moment he turns that restless craft into an intimate, full length statement, and it hits harder because of the story behind it.

In interviews around the album, Pretty spoke about a grim stretch of time living with a toxic mould problem and the spiral that came with it. Panic, hypersensitivity to sound, a feeling that the world had grown too sharp at the edges. You can hear that arc threaded through the record. The palette is bright and detailed, as you’d expect from Tennyson, but the brightness often comes with a weird sting. He leans into small, skittering details, then lets a melody rise up like a deep breath. It is still playful, just more human, and that tension sets Rot apart from his earlier EPs.

He sings more, and that decision suits him. The hooks feel tactile, almost hand built, rather than pasted on top of the beats. When the percussion gets metallic and busy, the vocals soften it with a pop tilt, so you get this push and pull that keeps the songs moving. There is a track that erupts in clipped vocal chops over what sounds like kitchen utensils recast as drums, and another where a piano figure keeps time while synths flicker like faulty neon. Tennyson has long been a fiend for foley and found sound, but here the choices feel less like tricks and more like diary entries.

Iron was one of the advance singles and still serves as a tidy entry point. It is intricate but catchy, a hallmark of his writing, and the way the chorus blooms makes sense of the album’s mood. The sequencing helps too. Rot doesn’t sag in the middle, even as it gets more reflective. A late highlight folds a gorgeous, almost gospel lift into quicksilver drum programming, which is the kind of move that reads corny on paper but feels earned when it arrives. You can tell these songs were sweated over in a home studio, tweaked until they sit just right between elastic and tight.

Fans who came up with the duo’s live clips will still find little rhythmic puzzles to chew on, yet the focus is songs, not puzzles. That shift has been reflected in how listeners talk about the record. Rot gave Tennyson a broader audience and a sense that he had crossed from prodigy-level tinkerer to fully fledged songwriter. It is easy to imagine someone who never cared for scene jargon being drawn in by the warmth of the chords and the vulnerability in the lyric sheets, then staying for the rhythmic games hidden in the margins.

On vinyl, the thing really opens up. The low end sits warmer, and the crisp high frequency filigree glints without turning harsh, which matters given the album’s backstory. If you collect Tennyson vinyl, Rot is the keeper, and it is the one I point people to when they ask where to start with Tennyson albums on vinyl. Copies of Rot vinyl have been floating around local shops here, and if you are crate digging in a Melbourne record store you might catch the cover peeking out. You can also buy Tennyson records online easily now, and it is the kind of album that rewards a quiet evening spin, especially for those of us deep in the vinyl records Australia rabbit hole.

There is a sweetness to Rot that lingers after the cleverness fades. You remember the tone of the voice, a little bruised but keen to find light. You remember the way small everyday noises are recast as instruments and how the drums dance around rather than bulldoze through a mix. For a debut LP, it already feels like a lived-in statement from an artist who has seen the inside of his own anxieties and chosen to write his way out. Play it loud enough to feel the kick, but give it room. The record blooms when you let your shoulders drop and lean in.