“Try not to indulge this thing, this thing inside my chest. Try not to indulge this thing, this thing inside my head“. Haunting and poetic, Hannah Cameron‘s new single This Thing is the kind of song that nestles its way into your brain and burrows deep into your subconscious. Well written and displaying a talent for composition, Cameron is on the right track for her upcoming debut album Blow My House Down.
Caught in a maelstrom in her mind, it’s Hannah Cameron’s tender alternative-folk that takes the spotlight in the video for This Thing.
Cameron has been working on her own music since 2012, and has been performing as an in-demand vocalist since then as well. She even took out the prestigious James Morrison Generations in Jazz Vocal Scholarship in 2013 and released a self-titled EP that year as well. Two years on Cameron is now ready to unleash her debut album on the world. Recorded in rural Victoria Blow My House Down is slated for an October 2 release, and first single This Thing is a promising indicator of where things are headed.
Alternative folk is a fickle thing to define. At times it feels a bit shallow of a genre as anything that features an acoustic guitar and introspective lyrics has the old folk label slapped on it. So what makes alt-folk? For one it’s the way the songwriting is approached. The lyrics in This Thing are astoundingly brutal, with the opening lines reading “I miss you in waves that wind me, I let them pummel then wash over me, Repeatedly. I let them have their way with me, Push me round till I can barely breath“. the imagery is confronting and somewhat harrowing. Yet the music is quite gentle, whispering softly like drizzle against a weary window.
The video for This Thing takes this dichotomy to heart, a subtle representation of the angst and turmoil present in the song. Subtle is the right way to go, the subject matter is dark but you don’t want to smack your audience over the head with visualised metaphors. This Thing is such that it has to be allowed to sink in, and the video allows that. Images of Cameron obscured behind mesh while grand scenes of nature are projected onto her are a good way to convey the internal struggle within the narrative of the track. She is consumed by these thoughts, yet it is these thoughts that are holding her back. Haunting and poetic indeed.
Hannah Cameron will be playing two special shows at The Worker’ Club in Melbourne on Wednesday August 26 and The End in Brisbane on Sunday August 30. Make sure to check out there socials for all the details.
