Hi, everyone. Alice In Chains here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of the new Hannah Frances album, Nested in Tangles.

Here we have a brand new record from singer-songwriter, Ms. Hannah Frances, a very quick follow-up to last year's Keeper of the Shepherd, which sonically and instrumentally was a pretty standard blend of folk and rock and Americana. But what set Hannah apart to my ears, from many artists going for something similar, was her occasionally progressive guitar work, as well as a very intense soaring vocal lead. She truly is a great singer, with some of her leads and inflections reminding me of a contemporary folk greats like Judy Collins, among others.

What's also interesting is that Hannah is based in Chicago, from what I understand, but still creates a strain of folk music that, personally, I associate more sunny Southern California, given its weary lead vocals; dry, acoustic instrumentation; some subtle touches of country pedal steel, too, here and there. But also, in addition to that, you have these touches of what feels like big city indie music that comes through in a lot of the whimsical and ornate arrangements and layers that surround her songs.

I think on this record, she makes about as obvious a nod to the heyday of this sound and the the mid to late 2000s by working with none other than singer-songwriter Daniel Rossen himself of Grizzly Bear fame. He has some feature nods on a few tracks of this record. And on key moments of this album, like with the opening title track, we get hit with these vocal harmonies and jazzy horn flourishes that are like a dead ringer for a classic record such as Yellow House, a Grizzly Bear album you most definitely should listen to if you have not already.

But yeah, there's a cool combination elements and ideas coming together throughout this record, parts that are both warm and wintery, progressive and simplistic, also worn but refined, too, like a big room theater performance.

Again, to go back to the opening title track, which features winding instrumental passages, some spoken word, too (which is obscured and distorted for no apparent reason). I mean, I do like the tension this song drums up and the feeling that the album is really tuning up and booting up, beginning, warming up the machine. We're letting the engine run for a minute before we really take off. But still, I do wish the spoken word on this track were clear, given that a lot of what Hannah is saying here addresses feelings of love and trust and openness that are dug into further within the rest of the album. It's almost like a table of contents in a way.

Still, though, after this, we are off to the races with "Life's Work". I love the regal and dramatic horns, the brushes on that snare. But what I love most about this track is the personal and moving life lesson that Hannah is conveying in its lyrics, that despite all these horrible things that may have happened to you in life during your formative years, you still have to be able to move past it and teach yourself to love and be accepting and just move on. And that act, that process is in and of itself life's work.

And further songs from here seem to also center around Hannah's process and experiences around moving past what seems like just some very terrible family history, connections or relationships that may not have worked out like on falling from and further, where she describes being at a bit of a loss, wishing she could have lost time back, and describing the ways in which she's aware that she has this habit of pushing people away out of fear that she is going to be either cut off or rejected. So she just does it first.

After this, we have the "Beholden To" instrumental, which I like quite a bit. I think it adds in a very lovely way to the tracklist's flow of this album quite a bit. And lyrically, "Steady in the Hand" is yet another shockingly honest moment where Hannah talks about wanting to be somebody who is functional in a way to where they can be the best version of themselves and being able to love openly knowing that. This, of course, is set to these wonderful swells of guitar and strings and pedal steel. It's not a super defined wall of sound, but it is a dense and lush one that leaves Hannah's vocals sounding like they are calling down and echoing through a massive canyon of instrumentation. And the gentle pacing of this track, in my opinion, is absolutely entrancing. The track feels like a never-ending embrace or a slow dance.

From here in the second half is where I feel like we begin to hit some rockier moments on the tracklist. An instrumental interlude that, to my ears, is a little too aggressive and reads as very Daniel Rossen-coded, almost like a leftover from one of his Department of Eagles projects.

And as much as I do like the lyrics of "Surviving You" – it's a track that really comes as advertised by its title – I still find Hannah's doubled up and very bold lead vocals to be more disorienting than anything. It almost feels like these different vocal lines are at war with each other in terms of which one is really trying to grab my attention. It's also unfortunate this is the resulting effect given how lyrically intensive this track is. Still, I do admire this song for bringing some of the biggest and most thunderous instrumental passages on the entire record. It's definitely a visceral experience that further contributes to this feeling that Hannah is really using this album to exercise some deep-seated negative emotions and experiences.

Following from here, "The Space Between" is the second of two Daniel Rossen crosovers. The tracklist does really save one of the best for last because this song also brings a massive instrumental presentation, with Hannah lyrically seeming as if she is wrestling with what to do with all these negative emotions.

The closing track serves as a very winding, prog folk jam of sorts, with a spoken word outro that brings a really strong sense of finality and self-discovery, too. In a way, it mirrors the spoken word passage of the opening track. Some of the closing words convey the idea that what Hannah had been searching for, she was able to find in herself.

But yeah, for sure, this album is one of the best and most impressive, most solid and holistic, and I would say thoughtful, listens I had of any folk or folk-adjacent album this year. And with Daniel Rossen's presence on the record and how much his influence clearly comes through on some of these instrumental passages in an indie folk way. It does feel almost like a passing of the torch moment. While also showcasing Hannah building very effectively on a lot of the work and ideas she put into her last record as well.

I will say, creatively, aesthetically, there's not a night and day difference between this and her last album, just like a lot of very subtle improvements and changes on a lot of what she was trying to accomplish there. I would say this record is an even farther cry away from her 2021 project Bedrock, which was not nearly as methodically assembled as this is.

But yeah, overall, very captivating, enthralling album, beautiful vocals and instrumentation all around, and some very thoughtful explorations of overcoming the ways in which past trauma may impact you today. Yeah, there are some tracks that I'm not necessarily 100% crazy about the execution of, per se, but those were not nearly enough to hold me back from loving much of what I heard here, which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 on this one.

Anthony Fantano. Hannah Frances. Forever.