Album Of The Week: Hannah Frances Nested In Tangles

Certain kinds of music feel ancient. When I listen to the old British folk albums that loom over Hannah Frances’ songs like guiding spirits, it makes sense to me that they were made decades ago, an ocean away. Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Shirley Collins, Nick Drake: It was as if these artists arrived at the tail end of a disappearing age, channeling the last gasps of a supernatural power snuffed out by modernity. Hearing Frances tap into that tradition on last year’s Keeper Of The Shepherd was startling and alluring, like discovering wizards still walk the earth.

Nested In Tangles keeps that sensation alive. But the latest from Frances, her first since signing to Fire Talk, is also a reminder that her music is no mere period piece. In her winding constructions and gleefully lush arrangements, once again assembled with close collaborator Kevin Copeland, the Vermont-based singer-songwriter evokes many generations of proggy, jazzy indie rock far too sophisticated to be properly described as indie rock — from Jeff Buckley to Jim O’Rourke to Joanna Newsom to Grizzly Bear, whose Daniel Rossen lends his guitar mastery to multiple tracks here. A few fleeting moments, like the electronic processing on her voice in parts of "Nested In Tangles" or the vocoder in the mists of the wordless "Beholden To," betray that for all her engagement with the classics, Frances is creating in the here and now.

The creeping of the present into an aesthetic so firmly rooted in the past becomes a fascinating backdrop for an album about healing from familial dysfunction, learning to move forward in ways that break the old cycles. "Righteous indignation/ I hear the shrill of the past yelling, telling me to run fast ahead," she sings on "Surviving You." It’s one of many Frances songs that moves with both anxiousness and graceful fluidity at turns, ratcheting up the tension and then breathing out sighs of relief, soaring on eagles’ wings and then crashing downward with a gnarly heaviness that reminds us folk-rock can actually rock sometimes. As if arguing with herself via two vocal tracks not quite in sync, she continues, "He wants me to tread light and stay tender/ But I'm a jagged hand/ I learned from you, how to leave, how to fight hard/ How to pull apart and push away/ Waving through a closed window/ Waiting to be mirrored back."

Earlier, on "Life’s Work," she streamlines the message: "Learning to trust in spite of it is life’s work." Nested In Tangles is full of complex delivery systems worthy of such knotty emotions and psychology. These nine tracks are towering woodland cathedrals in which no detail has been overlooked. Every component feels intricately crafted, as if by an expert artisan. Together, those flourishes add up to elaborate outpourings: elegant, ornate musical passages that nonetheless flow with the natural rush of raging rivers. "Recollections move through in sudden shifting shapes," she recites on closer "Heavy Light," as the music follows suit. It’s amazing to hear "Life’s Work," with its brisk minimalism and playful pep-band brass, subtly pick up steam until the instruments are practically screaming, only to exhale and return to the lighthearted mean.

Within each suite, Frances holds court, sometimes wailing away with elemental force, other times shifting into spoken word or reverie that does away with words altogether. You can hear her unburdening herself in real time, wrestling with darkness and longing, locating the most potent corners of her memories and transmuting them into gorgeous blasts and flutters. She belongs in a wise old souls hall of fame alongside peers and forebears like Sharon Van Etten, Jenn Wasner, Joni Mitchell, Jessica Pratt — figures who in one breath can summon tenderness and ferocity, hope and despair, whose voices can comfort and stare holes in you. Despite that piercing quality, more often than not, Frances doesn’t seem to be addressing her audience directly. Usually she seems to be off on her own trip, reshaping age-old traditions according to the contours of her own aches and passions until they begin to resemble a way forward.

Nested In Tangles is out 10/10 via Fire Talk.

Hannah Frances - Nested In Tangles [Ruby Red Vinyl]

22.99

Amazon

Other albums of note out this week:
• Jay Som's Belong
• Black Eyes' Hostile Design
• Flock Of Dimes' The Life You Save
• Mobb Deep's Infinite
• Amber Mark's Pretty Idea
• Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe's Liminal
• Makaya McCraven's Off The Record
• Dead Heat's Process Of Elimination
• Madi Diaz's Fatal Optimist
• The Marías singer Maria Zardoya's debut album as Not For Radio, Melt
• Avery Tucker's Paw
• The Antlers' Blight
• Gab Ferreira's Carrossel
• dust's Sky Is Falling
• Sanguisugabogg's Hideous Aftermath
• Bia's Bianca
• Emily A. Sprague's Cloud Time
• Weakened Friends' Feels Like Hell
• The Autumn Defense’s Here And Nowhere
• Rich Amiri's Grit & Grace
• Madison Cunningham's Ace
• Car Culture's Rest Here
• The Cool Kids' Hi Top Fade
• Jacob Collier's The Light For Days
• Khalid's After The Sun Goes
• NoSo's When Are You Leaving?
• Yellowcard's Better Days
• HAAi's Humanise
• Eydís Evensen's Oceanic Mirror
• The Besnard Lakes' The Besnard Lakes Are The Ghost Nation
• Sturle Dagsland's Dreams And Conjurations
• Miles Kane's Sunlight In The Shadows
• Jerskin Fendrix's Once Upon A Time. . . In Shropshire
• Perturbator's Age Of Aquarius
• U's ARCHENFIELD
• Alexandra Alden's When Is It Too Late?
• Asaf Avidan's Unfurl
• Forrest Day's Right On Time
• Griff Lynch's Blas Melysa’r Mis
• Other Lives' Volume V
• Various Artists' TD10
• Friendship Commanders' Bear
• Wilby's Center Of Affection
• Hollie Cook's Shy Girl
• Harvey Sutherland's Debt
• Silly Goose's Keys To The City
• Electric Guest's 10K
• The Orb's Buddhist Hipsters
• The Telephone Numbers' Scarecrow II
• Jenna Nicholls' The Commuter
• Giant Day's Alarm
• St. Paul & The Broken Bones' St. Paul & The Broken Bones
• The Necks' Disquiet
• Olivia Barton's For Myself And For You
• Couch's Big Talk
• Greg Jamie's Across A Violet Pasture
• LANY's Soft
• Public Service Broadcasting's Night Flight (The Last Flight Remixes)
• Aitis Band's IV
• Ariana And The Rose's The Breakup Variety Hour
• Niia's V
• Rhett Miller's A Lifetime Of Riding By Night
• Robert Finley's Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya
• Badlands' Nobody Dies
• Mella's Or So I’ve Been Told…
• The Grahams' The Bridge
• Daya's Til Every Petal Drops
• Wax Jaw's It Takes Guts!
• Zero Boys' Playback Is Hell
• Dalton's More Songs About Love & Death
• Charles Lloyd's Figure In Blue
• Greg Jamie's Across A Violet Pasture
• Laura Veirs' Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn't Say (Live In Angoulême)
• SOHN's Albadas (Dawn Songs)
• Priscilla Block's Things You Didn't See
• Brother Dragon's Wild Postures
• Roméo Poirier's Off The Record
• Merlyn Driver's It Was Also Sometimes Daylight
• Bryan Senti's La Marea
• Tommy Emmanuel's Living In The Light
• Gabriel Kahane’s Heirloom
• Alexis Plaen's Enjoy The Void
• David Garland's The Spark
• The Utopia Strong's Doperider
• Bruiser And Bicycle's Deep Country
• Jake & Shelby's Learning To Love
• Neti-Neti's Echo Of Being / Grace In Rot
• Glass Egg's visions & ecstasies
• Blawan's SickElixir
• Foxy Shazam's Box Of Magic
• Letters Sent Home's Forever Undone (Extended)
• Vanessa Wagner's Philip Glass : The Complete Piano Etudes
• Babygirl's Stay Here Where It’s Warm
• The Doo Wop Project's Echoes Of The Street
• Don Was And The Pan-Detroit Ensemble's Groove In The Face Of Adversity
• Soul Blind's Hide Your Evil
• Alf Hale's Songs To Enhance Your Driving Pleasure
• Great Lake Swimmers' Caught Light
• The Ramona Flowers' Made By Humans
• Sonya Belaya's Dacha
• Testament's Para Bellum
• Chal Sel's Traces
• Truculent's Born For The Gallows Or The Wheel
• TiaCorine's CORINIAN
• NYC Shootout's Knucklehed Anthemz
• Heavy//Hitter's Coming To Terms
• ODUMODUBLVCK's INDUSTRY MACHINE
• Courtney Granger & Cedric Watson's Cajun & Creole Music Of Louisiana
• Living Dead Girl's CON$PIRACY
• Goat's The Human Language 'Goat' Tape
• Eve Goodman + SERA's Natur
• Noah Hicks' Small Town Does
• Urias' CARRANCA
• Breakup Shoes' Standing Still
• Ariel Marx's The Last Frontier Original Soundtrack
• Jharrel Jerome's More Than A Bronx Tale Mixtape
• Robert Glasper's Keys To The City: Volume One
• Kent Jamz's Fear
• John Lennon & Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band’s Power To The People (Super Deluxe Edition)
• Villagerrr's Tear Your Heart Out (Deluxe)
• Larkin Poe's Bloom (Deluxe)
• Patti Smith's Horses 50th Anniversary Edition
• Sammy Hagar's Sammy Hagar & The Best Of All Worlds Band - The Residency
• Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats' Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (10th Anniversary Edition)
• Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's Crush (40th Anniversary Edition)
• Christian Science Reading Room's Under The Bed And In The Eyes Of Another EP
• Jessy Blakemore's if you need me, i'm a few missed calls away EP
• Sherelle's WITH A VENGEANCE RELOADED EP
• Mae Estes' Mae Estes EP
• Drift City's Spectral Heart Mosaics EP
• Sophia Center's The Kids' Table EP
• The Family Battenberg's Spider Rock Forever EP
• Marni's fml era EP
• Dustin O'Halloran's The Chromatic Sessions EP
• Dry Socket & Violencia's Split EP
• Brye's Cycle Breaker EP