Hannah Frances
★★★★★
Nested In Tangles
FIRE TALK. CD/DL/LP
US singer-songwriter adroitly melds acid folk and jazz with nods to prog rock.
At its most linear, the formerly Chicago-resident but now Vermont-based Hannah Frances’s second album nudgestowards a hybrid of Joni Mitchell’s jazz and the impressionistic side of John Martyn. Falling From And Further, Steady In The Hand and The Space Between (on which Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen guests; he arranges/produces this and another track) fit into this bag. Otherwise, though, the loose-limbed Nested In Tangles is further out, mostly showcasing instrumentals – with and without Frances reciting her own, allusive poetry – existing at the nexus of acid folk and swirling, hazily Yusef Lateef-tinged jazz with a polyrhythmic prog-rock edge. Lyrically, although indirect, Frances grapples with mediating a toxic family background and its effect on perceptions of her surroundings. Remarkably, the album gels and is unexpectedly airy: with its soufflé-light façade and full-fat core, this is a delight.