It is impossible to listen to Nested in Tangles by Hannah Frances passively, as the music demands your attention. Layer upon layer reflects the messy and contrary nature of existence. Contradictory forces are at play, challenging and directing attention, just as in life, these moments are in turn chaotic and controlled, inspired and unpredictable. It’s not unlike looking in a funhouse mirror, your expressions barely recognisable as you try to make out your surroundings; Nested in Tangles plays with what you know, before standing everything on its ear. The initial wordless vocals become just as fractured as the music, blazes of brass falling away as Frances recites lyrics while a second series of voices sing against the grain. In equal measure inspiring and disturbing, it becomes a metaphor for the world we live in.
The surprisingly bouncy Life’s Work sounds more like a part of a Broadway soundtrack than a folk-rock number, thanks to the plucky brass arrangement by Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen. Lyrically, though, the song goes far beyond anything on the stage as Frances uses her alto to full effect, singing, “Reconcile the child through hostile family/ Rupture is tradition, born into dissonance,” the shifting sound reflecting the knotty subject matter.
Themes turn on a dime. Falling From and Further begins like a simple guitar-led folk number before horns shift the setting. Candidly, she admits, “The fear of everyone leaving/ keeps me leaving first,” an admission both of regret, while still wishing to feel everything there is to feel. The musical bed keeps shifting to reflect the unsettled feelings she experiences. The palate cleanser instrumental, Beholden To, feels like the beginning of a new day, with the sunrise coming up against the strains of an acoustic guitar and flute leaning softly into jazz.
Steady In Hand offers a slow, deliberate look at the things that matter. The strum of an acoustic guitar, joined by pedal steel and woodwinds, gently leads into a moment of self-appraisal as Frances reveals, “It takes living and losing to know what matters.” The simplicity of the sound brings volumes of meaning to the fore. Following up with A Body, A Map offers another jazz-influenced passage.
On Surviving You, she ratchets up the sound, examining the intricate nature of relationships with family, some of which are not quite what one would hope for. By the time she reaches some of the album’s hardest truths, it is almost a relief: “There is nothing more to give toward forgiveness/ When there is no willingness to understand.”
Concluding with Heavy Light, Frances has created a piece of music that extends the idea of what music can do and the subjects it can cover. She bravely examines who she is and what has gotten her to this moment in time. Nested in Tangles is not always an easy listen, but it is one of the bravest to be recorded.
Nested in Tangles is challenging, unpredictable, and ultimately rewarding in its unflinching honesty and musical ambition.
Nested in Tangles (October 10th, 2025) Fire Talk
Bandcamp: https://hannahfrances.bandcamp.com/album/nested-in-tangles