Hannah

Hannah is a culmination of everything Read has done up to this point and she delivers bittersweet missives through tender songwriting and a deft application of her strengths as a musician.

The album oscillates between emotional registers, balancing profound quiet with strummy, emphatic pleas about how we might better comport ourselves in the world; there’s a sense that even at their most gentle, these songs are transmitting something deeply earnest and hard-won. This is as true of Read’s lyrics as of her arrangements, which are newly rich and rewarding.

Despite its searching, Hannah exudes a qualified, though not-at-all-false confidence.

The album opener, "Kisses", seems quite typical at first with whisper-soft vocals and cloudy piano chords riding quarter notes. Yet the chorus is over before you realize it's begun, and then the song slows and seemingly stops for a breath. Then suddenly, it's burst into a beautiful yet understated coda. The album is full of unexpected, wonderful twists like this.

Big, small, loud, quiet, but all tethered to the earth with the same level of care. Pennant line to mooring, mooring to chain, chain to anchor, but free to drift with the tides. All of them lovely and lit from within.

Whether she is quite literally questioning her own happiness in "Hannah Happiness" or dealing with the act of sharing feelings with others in "Stranger Sat by Me," Read awakens the overwhelming feeling of second-guessing choices or misremembering a specific experience.