Hannah Frances returns with new avant rock single and album coming October

Hannah Frances’ ‘Keeper of the Shepherd‘ is one of my favourite new album discoveries of the past 18 months. She has a knack for making rhythms, melodies and motifs that don’t quite align with each other. Instead, they tumble you like a spinning top into a cartwheel of emotion. To heck with the traditional folk-rock setups, Hannah’s doing her own thing. Part of this is down to Hannah’s polyrhythmic fingerpicking guitar style. It sets up each song to catch you on the hop, making her music feel alive and shifty.

‘Surviving You’ is the latest single released as a preview for her upcoming album ‘Nested in Tangles’. The album is due for release on 10th October, and the single and album are about the complexities of life and relationships. Hannah wrote the album immediately after ‘Keeper of the Shepherd’ as she was dealing with a recurring familial trauma. In addition to the guitar and folk instrumentation, you’ll find strings, brass, and jazzier elements to emphasise the polyrhythmic, almost freeform approach to song sculpting. The single ‘Surviving You’ showcases Frances’s songwriting superbly. There are several vocal layers, running in and out of each other over the top of a sway, gallop of a guitar rhythm. The chorus lurches from unusual, uncomfortable chord to chord. The bridge lets brassy elements flutter around an increasingly passionate and rousing vocal performance. It’s chaotic, brash, prog rock at its finest, and one of my favourite singles of 2025 to date.

The single ‘Surviving You’ is out now. Visit Hannah Frances’s website for more information about the release and tour dates.

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