It’s been too long a gap since the Melbourne artist Juice Webster graced us with her astonishing debut album ‘Julia’, one of our most lauded antipodean albums of 2023, and it is great to see her back with her new single ‘Hannah’ as well as a live show ahead.
Described as alternative folk, we have said that Webster’s instrumentation recalls elements of The National or Sufjan Stevens, the vocals are easy to compare to Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers or Taylor Swift, and yet she has her own distinctly unique sound. It is something that is restrained and yet intense like a slow burning fuse, filled with a wide-eyed romanticism with a deeply personal resonance to every track.
“Hannah’ has the same burning intensity mixed with a soft and delicate delivery – there is an ethereal element to the sound, slightly whimsical, aching beautiful like a silken veil drifting in the currents.
Webster says of the track:
I started writing ‘Hannah’ when I was feeling very stuck and caught in a loop of acting more out of obligation than desire. I put a lot of pressure on myself and in a way, this song is largely directed towards myself. While I was feeling this way, my friend Hannah and I went to the pool and spent a really nice afternoon together. She has this way of making me feel at ease. I can say whatever is on my mind and she will speak it back to me through a lens of pure understanding. When I got home I felt inspired to include this feeling in the song I’d been writing, because I had been feeling so bad, and Hannah made me feel so good – it was like magic.
Webster has a way of passing on this goodness, this feeling of quiet contentment, in her music, and ‘Hannah’ is a natural progression, an ascension built on her past work. Indeed the lyrics are personal and raw:
There’s pressure above – I’m feeling it below
I’m taking it slow but I’m stressing just as much
We’re born to desire, instead I just oblige
And I hate that I lie, but maybe I’m a coward
Maybe I’m a coward
Filmed and edited by Joey Clough, the accompanying video of Webster in simple black and white is intimate and raw, initially claustrophobic and close before reaching an epiphany in colour and in more expansive settings, like the sun breaking through the clouds:
Exquisite stuff as we have come to expect from this luminescent artist. ‘Hannah’ is out now through Cohort Records and available to stream and download here and through the link below.
To celebrate the new single, Juice Webster has also announced a headline show coming up on Thursday, 28 November at The Curtin following on from stand-out showcases at BIGSOUND 2024 and SXSW Sydney 2024. Tickets for Juice Webster’s headline show are on sale now here.
Feature Photograph: Joey Clough
