Earlier in the month we introduced Crook Decker the new alter ego of London-based artist Jude Lilley. You might recognise Lilley as part of psych-pop outfit Moreish Idols, but this project is something very different. “It was during an insanely hot, pandemic summer in 2020 that my astro-turfed terrace became an oasis,” Lilley explains. “The world was getting sick, Peckham was a desert, and London was a swamp, but somehow, up there, I was protected from it all. I began to write through the eyes of Crook Decker, a lonesome swamp dweller who swears by the superficial mantra ‘ignorance is bliss’ as he trots through his environment, refusing to take in the real world around him.” The result of this period was Graffiti Lagoon, a humid, tropical full-length which, as we put it, “reimagines Bermondsey as a bayou.”
With Graffiti Lagoon now out via Seb Wildblood’s label all my thoughts, Crook Decker has returned with new single ‘Living in Paradise’. With the swampy slacker sensibilities on full show, the song digs into the contradictions at the heart of the project, where the languid confidence rubs up against something tense and uneasy. “Some day / Could be hero / I toughen up my act / Before the planet hits subzero,” as Lilley sings in one verse. “But I’m stranded on this beach / And I’m runnin out of fuel.” A strange duality emerges, the borders of the album’s imaginary world not fully watertight, reality leaking in with uncomfortable results. Crook Decker might have built a whole new biome in order to escape the confines of an urban present, but in the end there is no running from what is really there. “Living In Paradise kinda speaks for itself,” as Lilley explains. “It took me some hard truths to realise I’ll never be a better person when my back is turned. It was time to put some effort into embracing my new urban environment and take some accountability by adjusting my attitude and listening to the chaotic beauty around me.”
Watch the video below, directed by Lurch, shot by Kharn Roberts with art direction and location by Kaleb Markham:
Graffiti Lagoon is out now via all my thoughts and available from the Crook Decker Bandcamp page.
