The first four seconds of “Life’s Work” feel like you’ve stumbled into the wrong movie theatre, a horror score leaking through the walls, before the finger-picked guitar seamlessly transforms into a delicate, twangy backdrop to Hannah Frances’ melodic gymnastics. Everything tilts, and tilts again: polyrhythms skitter, brass flares, and that central mantra—“learning to trust in spite of it is life’s work”—tightens like wire around the song’s spine. The melody slips sideways, the arrangement keeps layering more claws and teeth, until the whole thing feels like grief dressed up in vaudeville clothes: brutal, theatrical, a little absurd, melancholic in spite of itself.
You can hear Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen’s collaboration in the architecture—careful, tensile layers rather than ornament—yet nothing blunts Frances’ voice, which cuts clear as glass through the din. There’s a mischief twining through the song, the melody unpredictable and cheeky, the words sitting light on her tongue, but no matter where the track turns, it can’t outrun the melancholy that seeps in—which is, of course, the point. Resilience isn’t stoicism; it’s motion, breath, re-entry. “Life’s Work” turns trust into labour, ritual, a spidery lattice, a grin stretching tight even as it trembles.
‘Life’s Work’ is a wonderful distillation of existential possibility. It is a riot of colour, trombone, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, cello, piano, and Hannah Frances’s remarkably expressive voice. When talking about the latest single to be taken from her forthcoming album, “Nested in Triangles” due out October the intuitive composer, vocalist, guitarist, and poet says:
“‘Life’s Work’ is a haywire and whimsical exploration of familial rupture and the impacts of growing up in a dysfunctional home. Featuring arrangements by Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear) and trombone by Andy Clausen, there’s a touch of theatrical gallows humour to this song as a musical juxtaposition to the interiority of pain that I am narrating. Learning to trust in spite of everything is our life’s work.”
‘Life’s Work’ is virtuosic. It is varied. It is vital. It is the sound of an artist both ahead and on top of their game. “Nested in Triangles” due out October 10th via Fire Talk
The Fat Angel Sings 