Hannah Georgas’ eponymous third album sounds like an electronic beating heart, swimming in a sea of some sort of aqueous metal. Well, a waterproof electronic beating heart. While Georgas’ first EP ‘The Beat Stuff’ sounds like the happy, gurgling baby of Regina Spector and Kathleen Edwards, this most recent offering makes Georgas sound like she’s waiting for an interview on JobMine. It’s bloodily raw and hopeful, with a harsh, acidic finish.
This is supremely obvious in ‘Enemies’, one of the singles off this album, and my favourite. It’s simultaneously a challenge and a threat, with Georgas warning “If we get cut, they’re gonna taste our blood.” Georgas’s vocals cut like a knife through Graham Walsh’s throbbing, messy background synth, a point of similarity through the entire album. This is especially true on the slight creepy ‘Somebody’. Don’t be deceived by the friendly bass and peppy beat; Hannah Georgas is out for sweet, sweet revenge. Just from looking at the lyrics, the song could be a rambling spoken word piece written by a 11 year old that’s just seen her crush holding hands with another girl: “I just hope that someday somebody’s gonna break your heart/and then you’ll finally see what I’ve felt”. It’s Georgas’ sincerely menacing undertones, though, that make this song brilliant.
The album’s last song, ‘Waiting Game’, is the complete opposite of songs like ‘Somebody’ and ‘Shortie’. Instead of near vapid lyrics with an adorable beat, ‘Waiting Game’ has some of the most subtle lyrics on the album, matched perfectly with Ryan Guldemond’s (of Mother Mother) synth. The truth in Georgas’ pleading “I get so hard/I get so hard on myself” needles its way into your heart, while her “I fear my ignorance/Sleep makes me forget” serves as a reminder for that assignment you still have due in 2 hours. The beginning matches the end, while Georgas’ starting ‘Elephant’ echoing the same fears as her last song. The mantra of the song “It’s just a little love that I need” can easily be considered the mantra of the entire album, reflecting the note of quiet, calm desperation that winds its way through the entire album.
This thread is beautifully manifested in ‘Robotic’, the second single off the album. Nowhere else is the ‘electronic beating heart’ more obvious; Georgas repeatedly calls out “I wanna be robotic/No more blood in these veins/I wanna press reset”. And while desperation and release are apparent in ‘Robotic’, it feels like the only song with a resolution. Others like ‘Elephant’ and ‘Enemies’ tend to end with a fireworks display of crying vocals, heavy drums, synth and bass. It feels like Georgas is trying to get all the emotion she has been building up out in one go, but ironically makes the listener feel like there’s something missing; like there’s one line that she didn’t sing, one thought she held back. ‘Robotic’, however, has none of that. Instead, there is relief in her voice as she sings out ‘I wanna be reprogrammed’ that isn’t apparent anywhere else on the album. It feels more like a confession than just a clever metaphor.
I came up with the description of the album as being a beating heart in liquid metal during my very first listen to the album. I should have waited, though, and listened a bit closer. Hannah Georgas, of course, managed to describe the sentiment of her entire album in one near perfect line; “If there’s magic on this planet, it’s in the water/If there’s magic on this planet, it’s in my blood”.
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