Review: Hannah Wicklund – The Prize

Flat Iron Recordings / Strawberry Moon Records (January 12^th, 2024)

Review: Stephen Brophy

For some crazy reason I only really took notice of the wonderful talents of Hannah Wicklund back in 2020 when she released a 5-track Live EP with her band The Steppin Stones which I listened to over and over during the pandemic, definitely one of the things that helped get me through some of the more difficult days, and in particular the track ‘Bomb Through The Breeze’ which showcased not only that stunning deep, rich bluesy voice but also her excellent guitar playing skills. So when this new album landed in my Inbox I was delighted and excited to check it out, and it does not fail to deliver in many different ways.

Firstly lets look at what we have, 10 songs each telling a different story but collectively relating to a woman’s transition to womanhood, and although I can’t directly relate or even understand the feelings involved with that journey, as people we all at some stage go through journeys of transition in our lives so we can relate to those feelings. The album is Produced by Greta Van Fleet’s Sam Kiszka, who also plays bass and keyboards, with fellow GVF band mate Daniel Wagner playing drums and naturally they both do an excellent job.

The music itself is a mix of guitar tracks, piano, and many styles, but they blend and work perfectly together, for me her voice is certainly the strongest instrument on show, at times it’s just flawless, the power, the control on both ends of the scale. Picking highlights isn’t easy as I don’t think there’s any filler here, but I will attempt to pick my favourite songs this week. ‘Witness’ was one of the first songs to really grab me on the album, it’s a beautifully written song with a wicked piano intro running into a powerful and passionate vocal. I think it’s obvious that these songs have been lived with a long time before they were committed to a recording, nothing is rushed and nothing appears to have been added for the sake of it or for effect to cut any corners.  There is something about the opening to ‘Lost Love’ that just brought Tracy Chapman to mind, such a powerful vocal. Right now the closer ‘Sun To Sun’ is the track that’s not letting go, a wonderful meandering song enclosed in a melody and elevated by a string accompaniment, brilliant stuff. Honestly there are seven other excellent tracks here. I don’t know what genre you could place this album in, just great music would work for me.

This album took me a long time to work through, and definitely not because of anything negative, purely because of the quality from the first note to the last. For me this is already the number one contender for album of the year, a bold prediction perhaps at this very early point, but it’s a brilliant body of work from an artist that I hope is destined for huge things. Hannah will be back in the UK towards the end of May for the album tour, don’t miss it.

Hannah is a truly gifted artist not just musically, with her creativity extending to painting and the digital realm, to coincide with the release of the album she created ten paintings setting a scene for each song to live in. One thing that is for sure there is a lot more to come and I for one can’t wait to see where it takes us all, ‘The Prize‘ has see Hannah expand outside the boundaries of the first album, and it’s a stunner, just enjoy it.

Tracklist:

1 Hell In The Hallway)

2 Witness

3 Hide And Seek

4 Lost Love

5 Song Bird Sing

6 The Prize

7 Can’t Get Enough

8 Intervention

9 Dark Passenger

10 Sun By Sun