Hannah Lew
- bizzarre
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Hannah Lew (Grass Widow/Cold Beat) shares single & video "Sunday" from her Self-Titled debut Album album out via Night School Records in April.
“One foot out the door, another in the otherworld…” So begins Hannah Lew’s debut, self-titled solo record (coming 10th April via Night School Records), soaked in imperious, wide-eyed pop songwriting and a girl-group/post punk aesthetic that belies the artist’s history in the U.S. underground. A towering, hook-laden album, it’s infused with an optimism and surrealism that conversely deals with the times we find ourselves in.
Today Lew also shares new single "Sunday", accompanied by a video directed by Luciano Talpini Aita featuring special effects by Mike Stoltz. On the swooning, sublime new song, layers of Numanoid synths open up for the commanding vocal performance pontificating on grief, love, pain as she “feels the ache on Sunday…” As the chorus builds and Lew’s call-and-response vocal adds to the emotional tension, it almost feels like too much to take.
Hannah Lew says of the song and video:
"The video for Sunday is a re-enactment of a dream I had, that the song is also based on. It was surreal to embody the subconscious & only then did I divine the meaning of the dream. The whole experience was very ritualistic.
This was only available due to Luciano’s ability to seamlessly travel between the waking & dreamworld, sorcerer he is. And the icing on the cake was pulling Mike Stoltz into the dream, with his video synth wizardry. I am truly lucky to have long time friends & collaborators who have been willing & able to dream with me like this."
Director Luciano Talpini Aita adds:
“This song evokes a longing for the simpler times of my childhood, the memories I cherish, and the things I left behind but still hold dear in my heart. I wanted to capture that feeling in the video."
Recorded at home in Richmond, CA and in The Best House studio with Maryam Qudus in Oakland CA, with the assistance of a crack team of West Coast musicians, this album sees Hannah Lew stepping out from behind the legacy of her two groups Grass Widow and Cold Beat.
While musically bearing similarities with her previous work, “Hannah Lew” is a bold leap into direct pop territory, making ample use of a vocal style that teases out the inherent melancholy in her melodies. Mastered by Sarah Register, each song is a perfectly honed nugget that frequently pulls the heart in two directions at once.
Themes of change, breaking up, shattering old ways of being are shot through Hannah Lew's self-titled debut. For the front cover, a photograph of the artist’s face was printed, ripped up and re-assembled, resembling the creative process embarked upon by Lew for her first “solo” material. The album feels instinctual, almost dream-like in its assemblage of sweeping synths and pulsating, propulsive drum machine beat patterns with Lew’s vocal performances sensitive and caressing over the top. Increasingly relying on the subconscious and dreams to guide her creative process, Hannah Lew frequently abandons literal interpretations or linear narratives, the songs seeming to exist in a swooning, effortless flow-state while remaining emotionally hard hitting.
On an album where every song could be a single, there are kaleidoscopic shades and varying emotional tones in abundance. First single "Another Twilight" is carried along a pumping, Italo-disco-style 4/4 beat and mono-synth bass line, the low end pulling at the heart and body. Lew’s vocal melody teases the track before swan-diving into a gorgeous chorus as she sings “it’s all over baby and I don’t mind… in decline, I take my time…” The album is suffused with moments like this. On slow builder "Damaged Melody", an arpeggiated synth elongates the verse before a cascading synth showers down melodic glitter. The stunning "Replica" uses dual swirling synth patterns before a driving, synthpop chorus for the ages carries Hannah Lew’s vocal into the stereo field, sailing in on a high register singed with the embers of a break up.
In a departure from previous groups, her solo songs are guided by dreams and free association inspired by Dada and the Surrealist movement and sculpted afterwards. As such, the songs reveal themselves on repeated listens, revealing traces of heartbreak inspired by both personal and global elements - Hannah Lew regards the album “a wartime album.” On "Move In Silence", Lew intones “there’s a war outside, just out of view,” revealing the dichotomy at play throughout. With the songs evolving naturally and in a flow state, the pressures and sadnesses of the modern age bleed through, mixed in with Lew’s inherent love, sensitivity and fractured-but-intact optimism. On the swooning, sublime "Sunday" layers of Numanoid synths open up for the commanding vocal performance pontificating on grief, love, pain as she “feels the ache on Sunday…” As the chorus builds and Lew’s call-and-response vocal adds to the emotional tension, it almost feels like too much to take.
Elsewhere, there are echoes of Hannah Lew’s previous work. On "Time Wasted" a bass guitar comes in with a heavy, punk attack before the synths and vocal harmonies reminiscent of later Cold Beat elevate everything. The glassy, sweetly resigned closer "The Clock" could be a sweetened Jesus & Mary Chain tune, before erupting into a volcanic chorus that could only come from Hannah Lew in 2026.
Picture by Sean Hewitt
Album Preorder here
