Album Review: Hand Habits Is Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void)
Alright, bear with me, as I begin my excited and inspired review of Hand Habits’ Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void). I say “bear with me” because my reviews tend to capture both visual and spiritual aspects of an album, which means I like to paint a picture with artists’ music as my paintbrush. If I were to paint Wildly Idle, I would paint a beautiful but still young woman looking at herself in the mirror like she was a curious unknown to her own spirit. Hand Habits’ has created a record that comes off like a french indie film on growing up: filled with sophistication, subtle pushes of boundaries, and an altogether questioning of one’s self.
Wildly Idle is a perfect name for Hand Habits debut. The pacing is like an idle wanderer walking through a forest with no aim and no set desire to get one. Listeners will love how they drift into the calm guitar strums and burgeoning psychedelia from the Seattle songstress. There are moments like in “In Between” or “Book On How To Change” where you will feel like you are floating on top of a pool, and letting the sun unabashedly hit your skin. There is an effect of stillness that comes from her indie arrangements. While the multi-insturmentalist uses light, wavy beats to build her melodies, her consciously streaming sonics are so tranquil they feel like the sounds of your personal thoughts. I am in awe of how Wildly Idle casts a brilliant pensiveness over listeners so that they can pay attention to lyrics that are all about exploring yourself physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
There is a folkish method to Hand Habits’ genius that makes her songs gentle opuses to self-exploration. Tracks such as, “Actress”, “New Bones”, and “Sun Beholds Me” feel are musical dedications to every position life places us in where we have to “rebirth” ourselves. In many ways, the chapters of our life are really the grand instances where we had to become a new person, but whether that person was for better or worse is up to perspective. To make you settle in the depth and intensity of such analysis, Hand Habits not only uses cool, smooth arrangements but assures her voice never goes beyond passive wonder. She, vocally, embodies the rare, brave moments when instead running away from our self observations/confrontations we decide to see them through. Hence, she sounds casually virtuous in how she emanates the morality of her songs. She is not a singer who plays too much with range and even her annotations. Instead, she sings like a straight river is running through her mind, which, again, makes listeners feels like they floating or effortlessly swimming in the “wildly idle“. Thus, it makes sense that she is humble before the void; you need to be modest to wisely observe the bigness of your life. For More Information on Hand Habits And To The Stunningly Clear Record of Wildly Idle On February 10 Click Here.
