SINGLE/VIDEO REVIEW: HAND HABITS – AQUAMARINE

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

Hand Habits socials: Twitter | Facebook | Website

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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