Hannah Rose Kessler: A Thousand Cuts – single review

Hannah Rose Kessler: A Thousand Cuts

(Reckless Yes)

DL | Streaming

Out now

Hannah Rose Kessler has released ‘A Thousand Cuts’ this week. The single follows recent single Come Feel Me ahead of her EP My Thoughts On The Apocalypse, which will be available digitally and on limited edition CD on 19 March 2021. 

In a similar way to last years release Adult Life EP from Eilis Frawley, A Thousand Cuts is an uncomfortable listen. The song taking shape after the singer experienced a summer filled with sexual harassment. Hannah explaining “I was followed out of a coffee shop by a man who “just wanted to tell me I was beautiful”, an Uber driver asked how much I would charge him for sex, then when the chef at work tried to kiss me while my hands were full of stupid miniature doughnuts, I broke down.”

Like the Frawley track, Stats, it holds nothing back and is designed to be uncomfortable.

“I wanted to make the song’s bassline sound almost like the sexy thumping music at the cliche strip clubs in films, where dodgy, suited men make deals, while girls spin around poles in the background like props. I basically wanted to make a song that would sound like something horny men would like, but then once they’re listening, tell them what they have done to me and many others with their ‘harmless’ comments.”

When I reviewed Stats, I put it on par for uncomfortableness with Rhoda Dakar and The Special’s The Boiler. With this release, Hannah Rose Kessler may have just matched that.

Uneasy and challenging listening.

For more on Hannah you can visit Bandcamp, Spotify, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

~

All words by Iain Key. See his Author Profile here author’s archive or on Twitter as @iainkey.