Photo credit: Julia Khorosilov
Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan has shared her first solo single ‘Rare Thing’ and announced details of album ‘Likewise’ (out on 31 January via Saddle Creek).
Written after a dream about her infant niece, the song finds Frances trying to work out what love is – and how it doesn’t always have to mean ‘taking something from somebody’. The electro-tinged opening recalls M83 or Tegan and Sara before a more fractured indie-pop aesthetic breaks through with Frances reflecting on her personal feelings: ‘I only manage to stay small by making giants out of strangers’.
France starts to believe in herself (‘through the chaos I can see’) as a sonic combination of jangly guitars, glorious harps and more strident synths are thrown in: ‘I have to stop myself and admit I am happy’. Frances returns to these thoughts in the final, soothing line: ‘I have to stop myself and admit you make me happy’.