LOS ANGELES, CA- I’ll be honest… I almost didn’t write notes on Hannah Frances’ new single “Life’s Work.” At first listen, it hit me in a way that was just… unsettling. The shifting time signatures, the strange layering of instrumentation, and the cinematic sprawl gave it an energy that felt more like crazed vaudeville than a standard indie cut. It was unsettling in the best possible way, and for a moment I didn’t know if I could put words to the experience.
But “Life’s Work” demands to be wrestled with. Frances, who’s gearing up to release her new album Nested in Tangles on October 10 via Fire Talk, delivers a song that is piercing, theatrical, and oddly visceral. The track opens with a brief flourish that could be mistaken for a horror score before unraveling into frenetic polyrhythms, bursts of trombone, and staggered vocals. At the center sits a mantra that she repeats like a spell: “learning to trust in spite of it is life’s work.”
This is my introduction to Hannah Frances’ music, and it’s a striking one. Only after hearing “Life’s Work” did I learn about her 2023 record Keeper of the Shepherd, which earned rave reviews. I gave it a casual spin while driving around town and found it to be a much more traditional record… beautiful in its own right, but structured in a way that felt familiar. In contrast, “Life’s Work” feels like Frances breaking out of that shell, throwing everything at the wall and daring us to sit in the tension.
And the tension is where the magic lives. The song is spine-chilling and beautiful at the same time… an ominous beauty that lingers even after the final refrain. Frances’ lyrics cut deep into themes of generational trauma and familial rupture, but she pairs them with arrangements so theatrical they border on gallows humor. It’s a risky juxtaposition, but it works because she doesn’t shy away from contradiction.
I love this song, but I don’t fully understand why I love it. That might be the point. Frances has created something that resists easy categorization, a track that makes you question your own reaction as you listen. If “Life’s Work” is any indication, Nested in Tangles won’t be a passive listen. It will be an album you sit with, struggle with, and maybe even heal with.
Follow Hannah Frances on Facebook and Instagram.*********************
Hannah Frances 2025 Tour Dates (Headlining Dates in Bold)
Wed. Sep. 17 – Fribourg, CH @ Fri-son *
Thu. Sep. 18 – Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo *
Fri. Sep. 19 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix *
Fri. October 17 – Chicago, IL @ Constellation +
Thu. Oct. 30 – Sun. Nov. 2 – Guimarães, PT @ Mucho Flow
Wed. Nov. 5 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd +
Thu. Nov. 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie +
Sun. Nov. 9 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground +
Tue. Nov. 11 – Montreal, CA @ L’Esco +
Wed. Nov. 12 – Toronto, CA @ Baby G +
Fri. Nov. 14 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust +
Mon. Dec. 1 – Calgary, AB @ Palace Theatre ^
Thu. Dec. 4 – Vancouver, BC @ The Vogue ^
Fri. Dec. 5 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos ^
Tue. Dec. 9 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent ^
Thu. Dec. 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether ^
+ Hannah Frances Ensemble
* w/ Florist
^ w/ Foxwarren
