The new single from Hand Habits, ‘Aquamarine’ is taken from the album Fun House which is out on 22 October. Like most artists the pandemic put a halt to touring and allowed more time for self-reflection and this caused “a lot of buried emotions coming to the fore” and these have been documented on the forthcoming album.
As Meg Duffy eloquently puts it: “What originally started as a minimally arranged acoustic ballad, ‘Aquamarine’ evolved into the story of certain events in life, what informs my identity, the silence in the questions left unanswered that become the shape of understanding who I am. It was my goal to cloak some of the perils of mortality (lyrically) in a musical landscape that didn’t require the listener for a large amount of patience, to bring grief into the metaphorical club,” says Duffy. “We filmed this video in my aunt’s bar and club in upstate New York, linking the origin and lineage themes in the song with the visuals of changing identities and characters in a space I used to wander as a teen.”
The song feels like someone has filtered a club track through warm marshmallow and it’s a glorious contradiction being simultaneously a pop song, dance track and a ballad. The video is a one-shot, hand-held swoosh from bathroom to dancefloor, directed by V Haddad which maybe taps into Meg’s teenage years: being made to do chores, like washing the floor, but amidst the mundane there is the freedom to dance with wild abandon on the empty dancefloor of your own private nightclub. Life is complicated, often brutal and the subjects tackled in the song are dark (see the lyrics below), but music is a great conduit for happiness, confusion, anger and grief, acting like a lightning rod, catching the intense emotions we feel and sending them to ground.
You can pre-order Fun House here
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Lyrics:
I remember when they found you
holding onto the gutter
soaking wet and white knuckles
lying through your teeth
stupid man
you are drunk again
she’s just a child, you know
wouldn’t understand
and I didn’t know she played guitar
until I turned 27
my distant cousin sent
a box of memory
certificate of authenticity
they were aquamarine
aquamarine
why can’t you talk about it?
I got used to being on the other side of truth
now I never ask for details
who the hell needs details?
when everything is burning
you light a fire on the grave
suicide
lost a life
well then who am i?
who am i?
in the corners of your mind
in the drawers of your mind,
who am i?
who am i?
you were so embarassed
threw a temper tantrum
i was only trying to help
took away the keys
she threw me out
on the street
a payphone call
two bloody knees
why can’t you talk about it?
I got used to being on the other side of truth
maybe it’s too painful and that’s why you’re so unable
a little bit of her inside
everything I do
everything I do
who am i?
who am I?
Review by Paul F Cook
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