A GoldFlakePaint favorite who has toured with Pinegrove, Hannah Read is set to release her debut album under her moniker, Lomelda. ‘Thx’ will be available from the esteemed Double Double Whammy record label (home of Mitski and Frankie Cosmos) and is full of songs about hopes, heartbreak and honest observations.
Recent single ‘Interstate Vision’ opens straight away with the words ‘Wrap your arms around me’ and this call for comfort is one that you will want to heed. It’s a quiet song which finds Hannah laying her soul bare as she talks about angels guiding her home and reminisces about being so young. She sings the words ‘Can you feel me now? Do you know me yet?’ with so much soul. ‘Bam Sha Klam’ is an extremely atmospheric piece that reminded us of Sharon Van Etten at her most touching: ‘Don’t remind me I should have let you go a long time ago’; ‘We will disappear into nothing, but do you see me in this moment?’
‘From There’ is back to just Hannah’s elegant voice and acoustic strums to start before it evolves into a country jam in the vein of Conor Oberst’s solo output. She ponders ‘Of all the thoughts I never told you, which should I say?’ and these rhetorical question, as well as the sadness, are a real defining feature of this record. The title track is very short as Hannah pleads ‘please don’t be mad at me, and don’t be as sad as me’. ‘Far Out’ could have fit on Tim Kasher’s latest solo album and has Hannah emotively singing about how she’s still looking out for a former loved one and revealing that she is: ‘pulling apart, pulling at my heart’.
‘Nervous Diner’ is an understated song in the style of Laura Marling that has Hannah explaining how she doesn’t want to fight and then battling her anxieties and worries over whether things actually were her fault: ‘It’s not bad to be right but if you know I am wrong, why don’t you tell me why?’; ‘Sorry if lately I give up too quick’; and finally the deeply affecting ‘Just hold me close before you go. Just hold me close before I go. Don’t you know I need a goodbye? Because I’m too nervous to drive’. ‘Mostly M.E.’ talks about moving on (‘I loved you but I lost you’) and death (‘crying with the ghosts’) and captures the effortless atmosphere of the entire record. It’s quietly powerful and one we should all say ‘thx for…
Filed under: Album review, New music, Preview Tagged: alternative music, Bandcamp, Double Double Whammy, folk music, indie music, Interstate Vision, Lomelda, new music, pop music, rock music, Thx
