Hailing from the North Shore of Massachusetts, New York-based songwriter Hannah Cranton. With the help of Brooklyn based producer Katie Buchanan, Cranton has been hard at work on a new EP, the follow-up to her 2016 debut Without a Shadow of a Certainty. Ahead of the record, which is slated for release next month, Cranton has shared the first single, ‘Kite’.
Described as a song about perseverance, ‘Kite’ is like some combination of The National and Christine Fellows, its nocturnal wandering lost and lonely even within the city bustle. “Just help me focus on Jersey all lit up tonight,” Cranton sings, lights not so much across the Hudson but at the end of a tunnel. “You’re probably in bed tucked in tight / but I cannot catch a wink,” she continues, “my mind’s a racing I don’t want to think anymore / about times before that don’t exist anymore.”
The track’s rise toward the repeated refrain feels like a concerted effort, a mantra to be held on the lips, a spell of perseverance that might just overwhelm the trouble pressing in. After all, there’s a degree of self-harm in too much reflection. Sometimes it’s enough to hold on and try to move forward.
I am fighting this urge to to feed the chaos machine in me
